Canada Border Services Agency President Erin O'Gorman waits to appear before the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on Dec. 12.Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press
Border agents are scanning letters and packages sent by courier to Canada to see if they are being used to smuggle fentanyl, MPs were told at a public-safety hearing Thursday.
The MPs also heard that 4,000 organized crime groups are currently operating in Canada, including in the illicit fentanyl trade.
Erin O’Gorman, president of the Canada Border Services Agency, said the agency has recently been talking with courier companies “who themselves don’t want to be shippers of lethal drugs” about the smuggling of pills and small quantities of drugs in packages and small containers.
She said there has been a significant increase in small parcels sent since the pandemic, with the agency now focused on how they are being used to smuggle drugs.
“As we’ve seen, a handful of fentanyl pills through the mail has become many doses out on the street and lives lost,” Ms. O’Gorman said, adding that both Canada and the U.S. are grappling with the fact that “smaller containers are being shipped through couriers.”
A 2017 change to the Customs Act allowing border officers to open mail weighing 30 grams or less has helped their work, which is informed by intelligence, she said.
The CBSA works very closely with U.S. agencies, including by sharing intelligence reports, and sits on several joint U.S.-Canada forums focused on tackling the smuggling of fentanyl, she told MPs.
President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to impose 25-per-cent tariffs on all imports from Canada and Mexico unless the two countries do more to combat the fentanyl trade and illegal migration across borders. This prompted Ottawa to promise a major cash injection to boost border security.
At the Commons public-safety committee, MPs heard Thursday that RCMP Commissioner Michael Duheme and Ms. O’Gorman have made plans to visit Washington to meet Mr. Trump’s new appointees.
Commissioner Duheme said the RCMP works closely with the U.S., including sharing with them samples of seized drugs for testing and operating jointly staffed boat patrols to catch smugglers and migrants crossing the border by water illegally.
MPs heard that only a tiny proportion of fentanyl in the U.S. comes from Canada.
Aaron McCrorie, who is vice-president of intelligence and enforcement at CBSA, said in the first three quarters of this year, the agency seized 4.9 kilograms of fentanyl in Canada. The biggest seizure was 4.1 kilograms bound for the Netherlands, with smaller quantities intercepted at the land border.
Replying to questions from MPs, the RCMP Commissioner said there are a “significant number of organized crime groups” involved in the illicit drug trade in Canada.
Mathieu Bertrand, RCMP chief superintendent for serious and organized crime and border integrity, said 4,000 organized crime groups are operating here. They include Canadian and foreign criminal organizations, such as Mexican cartels.
Commissioner Duheme said he hoped any additional funding from Ottawa would enhance the work of an existing task force the Mounties have established to target fentanyl. He said the RCMP would use new funding to buy more modern technology to help them patrol the border with the U.S. and pay for more officers there.
Ms. O’Gorman said the CBSA had been consulted by Dominic LeBlanc, the Public Safety Minister, about extra funding. She said more money could pay for technology to help the agency detect and intercept people.