2016-17 Departmental Results Report - Canada Border Services Agency
Status report on transformational and major Crown projects

Description

eManifest is a major transformative initiative and part of the overall measures the Government of Canada is putting in place to enhance the safety and security of Canadians as well as international trade while streamlining cross-border processes. When fully implemented, eManifest will require trade chain partners in all modes of transportation to electronically transmit advance commercial information to the CBSA within prescribed mode-specific time frames.

Project outcomes

• Enhance CBSA's capacity to provide a pre-arrival risk determination of goods arriving to Canada.
• Improve the efficiency of administering pre-arrival determinations by using an improved risk assessment capability.
• Provide the CBSA with the ability to conduct more effective enforcement activities.
• Enable the CBSA to provide faster, more efficient frontline processing for legitimate commercial trade.

Industrial benefits

• Enhanced prosperity: eManifest will contribute to a strong economy by facilitating the flow of low-risk trade in a high-volume, time-sensitive, trans-border environment.
• Enhanced security: Canadians will be better protected from health, safety, security and terrorist threats as eManifest will "push the border out" as a means to obtain the right data at the right time. eManifest will use sophisticated tools and technology and rigorous risk assessment systems to interdict threats prior to their arrival at the border.
• Streamlined border processing: Obtaining and risk assessing commercial information from trade-chain participants before the arrival of goods in Canada will minimize the processing required at the border, streamline the clearance process and reduce border congestion.
• Consistency of application: As eManifest will expand the existing requirements for marine and air carriers to those in the highway and rail environments, there will be a consistent application of risk assessment across all modes of transportation relative to CBSA requirements.
• Reduced costs of compliance: Members of the trade community will be able to leverage the investment they are making to comply with both international and United States requirements. To the greatest extent possible, eManifest will develop system requirements using recognized international and North American standards.
• Enhanced systems performance: Given the high volumes and compressed time frames associated with trans-border trade, the CBSA will make enhancements to its information technology infrastructure that will improve system performance and reliability.
• Improved communication on status of shipments/documents through new and enhanced notification to trade chain partners.

Sponsoring department

Canada Border Services Agency

Contracting authority

• Canada Border Services Agency
• Public Services and Procurement Canada

Participating departments

Not Applicable (N/A)

Prime contractor

Not Applicable (N/A)

Major subcontractors

IBM, Emerion

Project phase

Execution Phase

Major milestones

Accomplished:

• (2008-2012) eManifest delivered system functionality for trade chain partners in all modes of transportation to electronically transmit advance commercial information to the CBSA
• (2013-2016) eManifest delivered the initial implementation of the Automated Risk Assessment system, which allowed the National Targeting Centre (NTC) to identify importations of high risk commodities in all modes of transportation. This also provided the NTC with advanced analytics capability to use historical and current data in their risk assessment.
• Delivered a new notification system that advises Trade Chain Partners the status of their shipments with the CBSA (January 2016).
• Completed implementation of the Automated Risk Assessment and delivered the initial implementation of the Targeting system, which provides the ability to screen and target high-risk shipments (October 2016).
• Completed the implementation of the Targeting system in highway and rail modes (March 2017).

Planned:

• New border processing system to all commercial operation locations in all modes of transportation, provides an integrated view with the NTC to close the loop on shipments referred for exam. To manage implementation risks to border operations the new border processing system will be introduced incrementally (September 2017).

Progress report and explanation of variances

Treasury Board approved eManifest project authority of $415.1 million. The eManifest project plan is tracking deliverables and milestones against a revised project plan approved in June 2014. The project is expected to be completed by September 2017 within the approved project authority.

Description

CARM is a multi-year initiative to modernize and optimize CBSA's commercial assessment and revenue collection processes and systems. When fully implemented, CARM will provide new and streamlined ways for commercial Trade Chain Partners to interact with the CBSA, and provide the CBSA with a modernized financial management regime focused on providing self-serve client-based services and processes.

CBSA collects over $30B in duties and taxes each year – making it the second largest revenue collector (behind Canada Revenue Agency) for the Government of Canada. Ensuring the accurate and efficient assessment, collection and reporting of this revenue from importers is key to ensuring the CBSA upholds its financial stewardship responsibilities. By simplifying the processes associated with the assessment and collection of duties and taxes for commercial clients, rules and regulation compliance will also improve for commercial clients. At the end of the day, doing business in Canada will be easier with the implementation of CARM.

Project outcomes

The transformation of the CBSA’s assessment and revenue management functions through CARM is intended to produce the following business outcomes:

• Reduced administrative burden for Canadian importers and other trade chain partners, streamlining trade and shifting Canada’s global trade enablement ranking, thereby improving Canadian competitiveness and meeting stakeholder expectations;
• Increased GC revenues by enabling improved fairness and consistency in the treatment of all imports, reducing missed opportunities to apply taxes and/or duties, and increasing revenues once complete; and
• Improved CBSA efficiency by enhancing services and reducing administrative overhead. A reduced internal administrative burden will improve service delivery efficiency while also increasing levels of service and improving CBSA capacity to support open government and improved trade-related reporting.

Industrial benefits

The CARM project will benefit commercial trade chain partners and Canadian businesses by:

• Reducing barriers that limit trade and commerce, including reducing the administrative burden on small and medium enterprises:
  • Increasing digitization of processes for submitting and tracking trade information and payments;
  • Introducing electronic options for payment of duties and taxes;
  • Providing the ability to enroll and register for programs, obtain information, view financial transactions (e.g. assessment and credits), and manage account information online through a secure portal;
  • Harmonizing the collection and dissemination of trade information;
  • Reducing duplication in submission of trade information.
• Establishing new and improved service delivery options and new service performance standards:
  • Implementing client-based accounting processes that improve the range and responsiveness of services that the CBSA provides to commercial clients;
  • Ensuring a “level playing field” for all TCPs by improving the accuracy and timeliness of processes and data, enabling consistent, fair and transparent assessment and collection of revenue across all TCPs nationwide;
  • Ensuring business continuity and availability of systems by replacing outdated systems with modern, integrated applications and platforms.
• Supporting their forecasting and decision-making by increasing digitization of processes for submitting and tracking trade information and payments, and enabling more frequent reporting on a greater number of metrics.

Sponsoring department

Canada Border Services Agency

Contracting authority

Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC)

Prime contractor

To be determined.

Major subcontractors

To be determined.

Project phase

CARM Phase 1 was completed with the implementation of the Accounts Receivable Ledger (ARL) in January 2016.

CARM Phase 2 Planning is in process. CARM will return to Treasury Board (TB) in Fall-2017 for TB approval to complete the remainder of CARM by March 2020.

Major milestones

• CARM Phase 1 ARL Contract Award: January 2015
• CARM Phase 1 ARL Implemented: January 2016
• CARM Smart Procurement Start (Industry Day): May 2014
• CARM Smart Procurement Proposals Received: June 2017
• CARM TB Submission for Remainder of CARM: Fall-2017
• CARM Smart Procurement End (Contract Award): Fall-2017
• CARM Design Complete: Fall-2018
• CARM Implementation Complete: March-2020

Progress report and explanation of variances

• In 2014, CARM received TB approval to complete ARL and Phase 2 Planning including to partner with PSPC to execute a collaborative procurement process (“CARM Smart Procurement”) to select a third-party vendor to design, build, implement and operate the remainder of CARM.
• CARM Planning phase is nearing completion. The procurement process bid solicitation ended in June 2017 with receipt of two vendor bids; bid evaluation is in progress and will be complete by August 2017.
• CARM will be returning to TB in fall-2017 for approval to complete the remainder of CARM by March 2020. CARM is on track to be completed by March 31, 2020 within its approved project authority of $371.5M.