Directly from Ottawa – The CBSA Canadian Border Services Agency border guards and Airport workers are preparing to begin strike job actions across Canada’s borders on Friday, August 6, 2021, at 6:00 am EDT if a contract is not agreed upon, this effects 9,000 workers! This will cause lengthy delays at all of the border crossings across Canada, both commercial and passenger vehicles, at the Airports, Commercial shipping ports, Postal facilities, and all headquarters locations as well. The residual of this action will cause delays for many months ahead.
The root cause of all of this disruption? Covid-19 restrictions that have been lifted! The CBSA Border Guards are worried about the Canadian Governments decision to allow visitors into Canada during this Covid-19 Pandemic Crisis. There will also be increased frustration by all who are travelling both personally and commercially so the guards could be at further risk physically.
PSAC the Public Service Alliance of Canada, representing all of the workers as well as the Customs and Immigration Union, stated that it served a strike notice to the Canadian Government this week on Tuesday, August 3, 2021, and is now in full action preparing all of the workers for CBSA.
CBSA has stated that they “will respond quickly to any job action/work disruption in order to maintain the safety and security of our borders, ensure compliance with our laws, and keep the borders open to legitimate travellers and goods,” said spokesperson Jacqueline Callin.
This controversy comes as Canada is preparing to allow fully vaccinated Americans to visit without having to quarantine starting August 9, 2021 and will open the country’s borders to travellers from other countries with the required doses of a COVID-19 shot on September 7, 2021. Only Fully Vaccinated US visitors and visitors from other countries coming in through the airports will be allowed into Canada.
Question – Does Canada have adequate Control over how to determine if all visitors have had their vaccinations? Nope! It is based on a “Trust Program” presently, the government is working on a vaccination passport program which sounds awful to some but for this writer and concerned citizen – Sign Me Up!
The guards that will be on duty with be only performing their necessary by law duties, they will not be answering questions from travelers about border regulations or collecting duties and taxes.
Their employee union is demanding include higher pay and the ability to carry their guns – are we really at the point that people are going to be in such uprise that they will be shooting each other? What does this mean for truck drivers as they are commercial and under that guideline and law, they are not allowed to carry weapons! Hopefully those border guards affected will not be angry and pulling guns at truck drivers who ask questions!
Businesses across Canada fear a negative impact, especially given the timing, just when they were expecting the first influx of tourists since the pandemic began.
“We are bracing ourselves that there will be a slowing of the flow at the ports of entry, which under the current circumstances is certainly not ideal, given that we’ll see volumes on the border,” said Mark Agnew, vice-president of policy and international with the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.
The unions have previously said that a strike would slow down passenger and commercial traffic at the land border as well as impact international mail and collection of duties and taxes.
For truck drivers out there expect huge delays at the borders crossing into Canada. The USA has not opened their borders fully yet, that is expected to happen August 21, 2021, in which case the exact same thing will happen southbound! Prepare for this with all of your shipments!
Stay Safe and Healthy Out There! For more information about this article, the new MSC, suspicious activities reporting, border crossings or safety & compliance programs such as CTPAT, FAST, PIP, AEO, CSA please contact Cross Border Services at www.crossborderservices.ca dawntruell@crossborderservices.ca
