Analysts anticipate finding “issues” with a costly federal IT program that digitizes border collections of customs duties, an ongoing project since 2016. The program’s eight-year development, originally scheduled to launch May 13 but has been delayed until October 21, has so far cost taxpayers more than $556 million, per Blacklock’s Reporter. The program has been widely criticized and compared to the failed $59.9 million pandemic-era border surveillance app, ArriveCan. “As a new IT system that will process over a million requests a year we are going to test and there are no doubt going to be some issues,” said a June 13 briefing note by the Department of Public Safety.“That is the point of testing,” states the note, without elaborating. The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) Assessment And Revenue Management System (CARM) requires that all importers and exporters, some 200,000 shippers, enroll in the digital program for electronic collection of tariffs.“CARM is expected to result in improved compliance with trade rules, reduce lost Government of Canada revenue and simplify the import process for trade chain partners,” said the note. The program was originally budgeted at $370 million. Costs as of December 31 were $556.8 million, the highest figure disclosed to date. Consultants at Deloitte were managing the rollout, said the memo.Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc in a May 22 regulatory notice said delays in launching CARM were intended to ensure a smooth transition from current tariff collection systems. “Delaying the coming into force of the legislative amendments sets industry partners up for success,” wrote LeBlanc.Fewer than half of cross-border shippers, about 81,000 of 200,000, had registered for the program despite the mandate, said the minister’s regulatory impact analysis statement. “The agency will not be introducing any additional changes to the CARM system that would have any impacts on stakeholders who have already upgraded their internal systems and have completed their certification,” it said.Shippers and Customs officers alike have depicted the launch of CARM as a costly computer-made failure. “We have general concerns regarding the decision to implement it in the first place,” the Customs and Immigration Union wrote the Commons Trade Committee. “It seems to follow the same pattern established by previous projects, notably ArriveCan, where a rushed system is deployed as a solution to a non-existent problem.”Tariff collections are worth $32 billion annually. “The system is not ready,” Kim Campbell, past chair of the Canadian Association of Importers and Exporters, told the trade committee March 21.“We have no confidence in where we are now.”
