May 11, 2026

CBSA Provides Update on Clearance Processing Delays

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) has been experiencing intermittent system delays affecting commercial processing since April.

The Agency activated its System Outage Contingency Plan on April 19, setting out procedures for moving commercial goods across all modes of transportation during a systems outage. Since then, CBSA has been using alternative submission and release measures, in coordination with trade chain and government partners, to keep goods flowing.

Most issues have been resolved, and work continues to clear the residual backlog. Ten IT fixes have been implemented in recent days, with more planned. Full implementation is expected to take about another week. CBSA has also issued additional guidance to front-line operations to ensure consistent processing and provide workarounds where needed.