Program directory · Canada Border Services Agency
Security Screening
- Department
- Canada Border Services Agency
- Program code
- BUF03 (CBSA)
- Core responsibility
- Border Management
- In Departmental Plans
- 2018-19 – 2026-27 · New since an earlier plan
What it does
The Security Screening program is responsible for the screening of temporary and permanent resident applicants and refugee claimants who have been referred to the CBSA by a Citizenship and Immigration visa office abroad or in Canada, or from a CBSA Port of Entry (PoE). The CBSA provides recommendations under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) related to serious organized crime, crimes against humanity, war crimes, terrorism, espionage and subversion. The CBSA is responsible for providing a consolidated response to the decision-maker of the file to assist with a determination of admissibility. This is administered in conjunction with various partners (i.e., the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service).
Source: the department's Program Inventory, via GC InfoBase.
History and lineage
First appears in GC InfoBase's actual spending by program in 2018-19. The data does not record when a program was created; it may be older than its first appearance here, which is limited by the sources (program spending starts in 2010-11, Departmental Plans in 2018-19).
| Program | Relation | Years with data | Actual spending over those years |
|---|---|---|---|
| Security Screening | This program | 2018-19 – 2028-29 | $157M |
No earlier or later program in the same department has a similar name.
Significant changes in scope and budget
Detected from the data: renames between plans, programs it appears to replace, merge with or split into (matched by name), year-over-year changes in spending of at least 25% and $5M, or in employees of at least 20% and 25 FTEs, linked budget measures, and results indicators added or dropped.
| Year | What changed | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2021-22 | Spending $20.5M, against $14.1M in 2020-21 (+45%). | Actual spending (GC InfoBase) |
| 2022-23 | Indicators added: Percentage of recommendations for admissibility provided/completed within relevant service standards | Departmental Results Framework (GC InfoBase) |
| 2022-23 | Indicators dropped: Permanent Resident (PR) claim recommendations are completed within relevant service standards as a percentage of all cases in the inventory each month per each line of business; Temporary Resident (TR) recommendations are completed within relevant service standards as a percentage of all cases in the inventory each month per each line of business | Departmental Results Framework (GC InfoBase) |
| 2022-23 | Spending $28.2M, against $20.5M in 2021-22 (+38%). | Actual spending (GC InfoBase) |
| 2025-26 | Planned spending $47.8M, against $34.6M in 2024-25 (+38%). | Latest Departmental Plan |
| 2026-27 | Planned employees (FTEs) 278, against 215 in 2025-26 (+29%). | FTEs (GC InfoBase) |
Success criteria
The program's indicators from its department's Departmental Results Framework: the target set in each year's plan, and the result reported the following year. Source: GC InfoBase.
Historical: targets against results
Bars: result reported. Dashed line: target.
| Report year | Target | Due | Result | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-23 | ≥ 80% | 2023 | 46% The result was impacted by several factors, including the fact that Canada welcomed a large number of refugee claimants in 2022–23, which led to an increase in the security screening workload. In addition, the CBSA faced increases in Temporary Resident and Permanent Resident volumes due to IRCC initiatives aimed at accelerating overseas processing. Moreover, the CBSA was concurrently delivering o… | Not met |
| 2023-24 | ≥ 80% | 2024 | 27% The Immigration National Security Screening Program is facing historically high referral volumes due to various operational factors and shifting priorities. This requires the diversion of resources to various immigration facilitation initiatives implemented by IRCC and other government departments (OGDs), while OGD requests to prioritize cases of interest also contribute to the diversion of resou… | Not met |
| 2024-25 | ≥ 80% | 2025 | 12.9% The Immigration National Security Screening Program is facing pressures due to increasing volumes and new demands, including continually high referral volumes as a result of recent immigration facilitation initiatives implemented by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) and other government departments, as well as geopolitical events (such as armed conflicts or natural disasters) an… | Not met |
Bars: result reported. Dashed line: target.
| Report year | Target | Due | Result | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018-19 | ≥ 85% | 2019 | 28.5% The CBSA continues to prioritize historically high volumes of in-Canada refugee claims due to regulated timeframes. | Not met |
| 2019-20 | ≥ 85% | 2020 | 59.7% The CBSA continues to prioritize historically high volumes of ongoing in-Canada refugee claimants, recognizing that the complexity of some cases may result in not meeting the target. The CBSA has been challenged by the ongoing influx of in-Canada refugee claimants, which peaked in summer 2018, and by a significant backlog of cases related to the Syrian Refugee Resettlement Initiative. Despite the… | Not met |
| 2020-21 | ≥ 85% | 2021 | 86.3% | Met |
| 2021-22 | ≥ 80% | 2022 | 92.5% | Met |
Bars: result reported. Dashed line: target.
| Report year | Target | Due | Result | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018-19 | ≥ 95% | 2019 | 49.5% The CBSA continues to prioritize historically high volumes of in-Canada refugee claims due to regulated timeframes. | Not met |
| 2019-20 | ≥ 95% | 2020 | 66% The CBSA continues to prioritize historically high volumes of ongoing in-Canada refugee claimants, recognizing that the complexity of some cases may result in not meeting the target. The CBSA has been challenged by the ongoing influx of in-Canada refugee claimants, which peaked in summer 2018, and by a significant backlog of cases related to the Syrian Refugee Resettlement Initiative. Despite the… | Not met |
| 2020-21 | ≥ 95% | 2021 | 63.5% Given that some cases involve complex security concerns and require varying timeframes to render an admissibility determination, the target for this indicator will be adjusted going forward to better reflect performance. | Not met |
| 2021-22 | ≥ 80% | 2022 | 44.9% Although the target was met for newly received Temporary Resident applications in 2021–22, the target was not met for the overall inventory of cases. As the volume of new applications in 2021–22 was significantly lower than in previous years, the timely processing of newer applications did not balance out the longer processing times for more complex applications when calculating the in-year perfo… | Not met |
Current: the 2026-27 plan's targets
Bars: result reported. Dashed line: target.
| Report year | Target | Due | Result | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-27 | ≥ 80% | 2027 | — | Planned |
Future goals: targets due after 2026-27
No targets with a later due date.
Spending and employees: planned against actual
Spending
Show the numbers
| Fiscal year | Planned | Actual |
|---|---|---|
| 2018-19 | $9.5M | $14.4M |
| 2019-20 | $9.1M | $13.8M |
| 2020-21 | $19.2M | $14.1M |
| 2021-22 | $13.3M | $20.5M |
| 2022-23 | $22.7M | $28.2M |
| 2023-24 | $30.5M | $31.1M |
| 2024-25 | $25.4M | $34.6M |
| 2025-26 | $47.8M | — |
| 2026-27 | $46.4M | — |
| 2027-28 | $43.9M* | — |
| 2028-29 | $34.2M* | — |
Employees (FTEs)
Show the numbers
| Fiscal year | Planned | Actual |
|---|---|---|
| 2018-19 | 102 | 130 |
| 2019-20 | 88 | 143 |
| 2020-21 | 162 | 132 |
| 2021-22 | 179 | 135 |
| 2022-23 | 169 | 158 |
| 2023-24 | 171 | 172 |
| 2024-25 | 197 | 184 |
| 2025-26 | 215 | — |
| 2026-27 | 278 | — |
| 2027-28 | 238* | — |
| 2028-29 | 221* | — |
Planned spending, plan by plan
Each row is one year's Departmental Plan and its forecast for the next three fiscal years; read a column down to see how the forecast for one year changed. The last row is what was actually spent. Click an amount for its source. Biggest changes in federal spending plans
| Plan | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 | 2024-25 | 2025-26 | 2026-27 | 2027-28 | 2028-29 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018-19 plan | $9,538,462 | $9,538,387 | $9,539,350 | ||||||||
| 2019-20 plan | $9,124,824 | $9,329,690 | $14,765,964 | ||||||||
| 2020-21 plan | $19,150,306 | $13,968,722 | $13,806,909 | ||||||||
| 2021-22 plan | $13,303,823 | $18,280,381 | $13,500,909 | ||||||||
| 2022-23 plan | $22,730,042 | $17,314,433 | $15,766,780 | ||||||||
| 2023-24 plan | $30,532,731 | $32,645,871 | $30,088,716 | ||||||||
| 2024-25 plan | $25,387,166 | $34,279,391 | $28,720,948 | ||||||||
| 2025-26 plan | $47,804,676 | $41,025,035 | $31,880,175 | ||||||||
| 2026-27 plan | $46,361,808 | $43,921,819 | $34,212,304 | ||||||||
| Actual | $14,350,701 | $13,755,108 | $14,101,824 | $20,502,404 | $28,211,898 | $31,136,694 | $34,605,492 |
Actual spending is from Departmental Results Reports and the Public Accounts, as published in GC InfoBase. FTEs are full-time equivalents.
