http://home.businesswire.com/portal/...63&newsLang=en

OTTAWA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 30, 2004--Front-line Customs Officers report that wait times across the border into Canada are often actually much longer than those reported online by the Canada Border Services Agency.


During the past few weeks, Customs Officers from across Canada who work along the border have kept a close watch on actual versus reported wait times at border crossings. Without this being a surprise to them, Officers confirmed what they long suspected: posted Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) wait times are underreported, in some cases by as much as 2 hours.

"We're convinced this is not news to anyone who lives close to a border crossing and commutes back and forth regularly between Canada and the U.S.," admits Ron Moran, National President of the Customs Excise Union Douanes Accise (CEUDA), representing 10,000 members of whom more than 4,200 are Canada's uniformed Customs Officers.

"While we realize identifying actual border wait times is not an exact science, what's clear is that CBSA has not been reporting accurate wait times and the times CBSA have been reporting are always shorter than the actual wait times," states Moran.

Moran adds: "While this could be a simple question of competency, there is no doubt in the minds of many as to why this is going on. When CBSA reports low wait times they're able to also say the border's properly managed and their employees are not that unhappy, that staffing levels are fine and that Canadians have no reason to complain about delays, that the flow of trade for commerce is unimpeded and just-in-time delivery of goods for importers and exporters is humming along, and that there's enough of the right staff; in short, that the illusion of 'all's well' can continue. It's difficult not to think something is going on".

CEUDA, through its members, commits to monitor CBSA's posted wait times. The union will explore the feasibility of providing real-time reports on its website, with frequent updates and details of actual versus reported times at major crossings and some international airports.