The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and Shared Services Canada (SSC) have provided the Minister of Public Safety with a report on the major IT outages that occurred between September 28 and October 5, 2025.
The Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) has urged the CBSA and the Government of Canada to release the report and action plan, and to address the ongoing outages that continue to disrupt supply chains and carrier operations.
The newly released report – available in English and French – includes a forward-looking action plan aimed at addressing the impacts and root causes of the outages. The disruptions stemmed from two unrelated IT changes that resulted in overlapping outages, initially triggered by “human error” that caused significant system corruption.
Joint Report on CBSA IT Outages between Sept 28 and Oct 5
Rapport sommaire de l’ASFC et de SPC sur les pannes informatiques
The system outages were a national crisis – not regional – and affected programs, services, and clearance processes across all modes, including highway carriers, air, marine, rail, and postal operations.
The plan outlines two phases of corrective actions to be completed in spring and fall 2026:
March 2026
- CBSA and SSC will review, identify, and implement oversight improvements, including enhanced training and role clarity for IT personnel.
- Introduce measures to strengthen scrutiny, review, collaboration, and communication to reduce the risk of human error.
October 2026
- Strengthen controls around system updates and upgrades to mitigate human-error risks, including a joint CBSA–SSC audit of change and incident management processes.
- Review CBSA’s IT application and infrastructure architecture, improve system robustness, and ensure adequate backups, redundancy, and protection of front-line operations during disruptions.
These corrective actions aim to reinforce internal processes, enhance collaboration with industry and government partners, and modernize technology. The agencies state that these commitments will help reduce future outages, minimize downtime, and further strengthen contingency planning.
“Industry cannot afford repeated system failures, and the disruptions over the past few months were damaging to carrier operations and drivers. We are thankful that CBSA and SSC have taken these concerns seriously and outlined clear corrective measures. Now we need to work together and see timely implementation to restore reliability and confidence in the system,” says Lak Shoan, Director of Policy and Industry Awareness Programs for CTA.
The CBSA also confirmed that the CBSA Assessment and Revenue Management (CARM) system was not affected, as it operates on a separate platform and has remained fully functional during recent IT issues.
CTA staff continue to work closely with CBSA officials to improve outage communications and to explore rapid-implementation process and contingency improvements to reduce operational impacts when outages occur.
“As we approach the review of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Trade Agreement (CUSMA) and the opening of the new Gordie Howe International Bridge, we must continue to send a signal to current and future trading partners that Canada is open for business,” he adds.