Agriculture committee  Mr. Chair, because the information under this bill is not collected under the authorities of the Customs Act, by definition it's not considered customs information. Section 107 is specific to the authorities that the CBSA has to release customs information to other parties, including other government departments, and because the information collected would not be collected under that authority, it does not need to be in section 107.

Agriculture committee  Mr. Chair, the CBSA is responsible for administering over 100 acts at the border. Many of them include very similar vague language. For example, under IRPA, which allows Canadians and foreign nationals to enter Canada, people with the right of entry into Canada do not need to show a passport.

Agriculture committee  We've had ongoing discussions for almost the past year with representatives from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and CFIA. Because this is a private member's bill, CBSA was not consulted specifically on the language within the bill, but we have been consulting closely with the department and the agency—in particular since the bill has been tabled—in looking at how we would start to administer the framework as described within this particular bill.

Agriculture committee  You're absolutely correct. I think Ms. Nix quoted some of the stats earlier in her testimony. Thousands of horses are exported annually. This is something we would continue to work through to try to determine how our resources would be allocated against this new enforcement priority for the agency.

Agriculture committee  On this particular one, I would defer to my colleague.

Agriculture committee  I appreciate the question in the sense that CBSA does play a very important role in ensuring the movement of goods across the border for both import and export. We are often the agency that enforces other government department regulations at the point of crossing the border. As it stands right now, as you heard in the testimony of my colleagues from CFIA, CFIA plays a very heavy role in the export of live horses.

Agriculture committee  Mr. Chair and members of the committee, I appreciate the opportunity to contribute to the committee's study of Bill C‑355. We are present today to share with the committee the roles and responsibilities of the Canada Border Services Agency, or CBSA, in monitoring the export of terrestrial animals, including horses.