Persistent IT system outages at the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) are continuing to disrupt Canada’s trade supply chain, with carriers and drivers reporting ongoing delays, added costs, and operational challenges.
Over the past several days, system failures and delays in receiving critical messaging have compounded existing frustrations across the industry. The Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) has been actively engaging with the agency through regular working group meetings, providing real-time feedback on fleet experiences, including rising costs, service delays, and broader impacts on operations.
The CTA for years has raised concerns about chronic underinvestment in these systems, but the situation reached a boiling point in September 2025. Widespread outages triggered significant supply chain disruptions, severe backlogs at the border, and major delays in the movement of international trade. As a result, many of Canada’s truck drivers were left effectively paralyzed at the northern border, with some stranded for days.
In response, CBSA has been working alongside Shared Services Canada (SSC) to address both technical and operational issues. A multi-modal roundtable session was held in early 2026 with representatives from SSC, the president of CBSA and the minister of Public Safety, Gary Anandasangaree, who reiterated their strong commitment to resolving these challenges through a comprehensive, multi-pronged action plan.
Despite these efforts, confidence in the reliability of CBSA’s systems continues to erode among fleets, drivers, and supply chain stakeholders.
“Although both the CBSA and SSC are working tirelessly to fix these ongoing issues, carriers and supply chain partners continue to lose faith and confidence in these critical systems supporting cross-border supply chains and businesses. Stability and reliability need to be restored as soon as possible,” said Lak Shoan, CTA director of Policy and Public Affairs.
The CBSA is working on additional communications to industry, including some potential solutions to mitigating these challenges, which will be distributed to the CTA membership as soon as possible.
