System outage caused major delays in commercial processing at Canada-U.S. border Tuesday

Commercial trucks experienced difficulties crossing the Canada-U.S. border on Tuesday morning as the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) dealt with a system outage.

The agency said the outage caused delays in commercial processing, specifically at ports of entry in Southern Ontario, and was partially resolved as 1:45 p.m.

“Commercial drivers may continue to experience delays as we resume normal processing operations. We thank you for your patience and apologize for any inconvenience experienced,” a spokesperson told CityNews.

Earlier in the day, the agency said it had staffed officers at primary inspection lanes at the Peace Bridge and Queenston-Lewiston bridge in Niagara Falls to process traffic shipments and assist with traffic control.

The CBSA states that its border services officers oversee a daily flow of approximately 400,000 people and billions of dollars in goods and services crossing the land border every day. The agency also claimed to have processed almost 4.5 million commercial trucks entering Canada in 2024, which equates to approximately 12,328 trucks per day.

Trucking alliance says IT systems have been ‘neglected’

While CBSA deals with the system outage, representatives with the Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) are slamming the agency for “neglecting” its IT systems.

“The outages continue to increase significantly in frequency and duration and are highly disruptive to carriers and their customers during this sluggish freight economy, which cannot afford any delay costs,” CTA wrote in a statement released on Tuesday.

CTA says it is a national federation of provincial trucking associations, and claims to represent over 4,500 carriers, owner-operators, and industry suppliers across Canada.

“Although the outages over the last few weeks have been very significant, this matter has been an ongoing issue for many years,” CTA’s CEO and President, Stephen Laskowski wrote in a statement. “Trade between the United States and Canada is regularly brought to a halt because Ottawa has failed to address outdated systems used to process shipments. Today, the entire northern border has come to a standstill because of that neglect.”

Over the weekend, the border agency experienced a similar outage that was impact its primary inspection kiosks, causing delays at customs in some of Canada’s busiest airports. The issue was resolved early the next morning, but that brought little comfort to the numerous travellers who missed flights due to the delays.

“The Prime Minister has recognized that our economy and our direction as a nation needs to be adjusted. The investment in our border infrastructure is at a crisis level,” Laskowski added. “We simply cannot have the movement of thousands of trucks come to a crawl at international border crossings, while giving another signal to the international business community that Canada is not open for business.”

With files from CityNews’ Cormac Mac Sweeney and 680 News Radio’s Scott Burnett.