Feds Quiet On Border Project

www.blacklocks.ca, Jason Unrau
A $400 million plan to privatize scores of Canada Border Services Agency land crossings is being endorsed by Conservatives. Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale has declined comment on the program quietly drafted by Agency management.

“In principle I don’t think it’s wrong to look at alternatives,” said MP Larry Miller (Bruce-Grey, Ont.), vice-chair of the Commons public safety committee. “Just because it’s run by the government doesn’t mean it can’t be done better.”

The Agency has asked that cabinet by May 17 approve the privatization of 71 land crossings. Facilities would be leased to the private sector for 30 years, according to a Project Brief. Privatization would affect offices, detention cells, employee housing and “security and communication requirements,” Project said. The program does not include duty-free shops; “facilities tied to a revenue-generating operation” such as toll plazas; and land crossing facilities built after 2000 “or in very good condition”.

The Minister of Public Safety has declined repeated requests for comment on the program, to be completed by 2020. The Agency last January proposed to spend $9.8 million on consulting fees alone to replace facilities “and upon completion of the construction transfer the provision of services and maintenance of the facilities to the successful consortium for up to a 30-year period.”

Contractors were warned not to “respond to requests for project-related information or questions from the media”, and cautioned on costs. “Accuracy of cost estimates is clearly a critical factor,” Project said; “Research shows that gaps between estimated and actual project costs have been significant.”

Agency managers said privatization is necessary to avoid ongoing maintenance costs. “When the Agency was created in 2003 it inherited a portfolio of operational and other administrative buildings that had not been updated or maintained on a systematic basis,” said a report Land Border Crossing Project by the Crown agency PPP Canada. “Maintaining adequate fixed infrastructure has been a pervasive issue predating the Agency’s creation and continues to be a major impediment to fulfilling the Crown’s economic and security priorities and for the Agency to respond to changes in its operation environment.”

“Given the annual capital budget to renovate these facilities, which in many cases are approaching a mid-life renewal stage and require additional capital investments to modify or add new functional areas and replace mechanical or structural components, would take between 16 and 20 years,” the report concluded.

Facilities targeted for privatization include Yukon’s Beaver Creek crossing; British Columbia crossings at Bedwell Harbour, Boudary Bay, Chopaka, Midway, Paterson, Roosville, Rykerts and Waneta crossings; as well as:

  • Alberta’s Aden, Carway, Chief Mountain, Del Bonia and Wild Horse; Alberta crossings at Aden, Carway, Chief Mountain, Del Bonia and Wild Horse;
  • Saskatchewan crossings at Carievale, Estevan Highway, Northgate, Oungre, Regway and Torquay; Manitoba crossings at Boissevain, Cartwright, Crystal Bay, Gretna, Lena, Piney, Snowflake, South Junction, Sprague, Tolstoi, Windygates and Winkler;
  • Ontario crossings at Pelee Island, Pigeon River, Rainy River, Sand Point Lake and Walpole;
  • Québec crossings at Abercorn, Chartierville, Covey Hill, Dundee, East Hereford, East Pinnacle, Frelighsburg, Glen Sutton, Himmingford, Herdman, Hereford Road, Highwater, Lacolle Route 221, Lacolle Route 223, Ponenegamook, St-Armand de Phillipsburg, St-Pamphile, Stanhope, Stanstead 143, Trout River and Woburn; and
  • New Brunswick crossings at Bloomfield, Campobello, Centreville, Clair, Fosterville, Four Falls, Gillespie, Grand Falls, Milltown, River de Chute, St. Croix, Woodstock Road, St. Stephen and Ferry Point Bridge.