In May 2011, the Government Consulting Services prepared a report for the Canada Border Services Agency titled Identification and Assessment of Options for the Escort Program (Project Number: 520-1412).
This blog post is a summary of that report. As the report is over 30 pages, please contact me if you want me to e-mail you a copy of the entire report.
In brief, in 2010/11 the cost of escorted removals was $7.5-million dollars, with an average cost per escorted removal at $13,933.00. The estimated total time spent by the CBSA to complete escorted removals during this time was 78,160 hours.
As noted in the report,
the decision as to whether a foreign national’s removal will be escorted or not lies with the Inland Enforcement regional managers or supervisors who oversee removals. The assessment focuses on many factors related to determining the level of risk likely to be present during the removal such as: the person’s comportment, anticipated reaction to their return to the country of destination, the length of the trip, and/or the transit point(s), the person’s past criminal behaviour, their physical and psychological condition, and more. In some cases, a medical escort may also be provided by the CBSA.
The cost of removals was broken down as follows:
| Costs and Hours | Estimated Annual Total Costs |
| Flight Costs for CBSA Escort Officers | $3,784,908.00 |
| Flight Costs for Foreign Nationals | $773,782.00 |
| Expenses (Accommodation, Other) | $884,718.00 |
| Cost of Regular Working Hours | $821,311.00 |
| Cost of Overtime | $1,428,804.00 |
| Total Costs | $7,495,935.00 |
The reason that the Flight Costs for CBSA Escort Officers is so much greater than the Flight Costs for Foreign Nationals is because CBSA officers must also pay for their flight to return to Canada. As well, for long distance flights, the CBSA policy is for officers to return to Canada by flying business class.
I have attached a page from the report which I found to be particularly interesting and informative, as it provides a breakdown of removal issues by region.
http://www.stevenmeurrens.com/wp-content/uploads/Escorted-Removals-Extract.pdf
The costs of to the taxpayer of administering the Canada Border Services Agency detention programs are also high, and from 2005-2014 costs around $442,000,000.00, and can be seen here: https://s3.amazonaws.com/cdn.stevenmeurrens.com/docs/A-2014-13107-costs+of+detentions.PDF
Proposed Regulatory Amendments
The Canada Border Services Agency is currently seeking consultations on significantly increasing the cost of removals.