A system outage affecting inspections kiosks and commercial systems at nearly a dozen Canadian airports, including Toronto Pearson and Billy Bishop, has been resolved, the Canada Border Services Agency said Monday afternoon.
“Commercial systems are also back online now. Thank you again for your patience and collaboration and our apologies for the inconvenience,” said CBSA in an X post.
The issue involved business and traveller CBSA systems, including primary inspections kiosks at the airports, the agency said on X at about 9 a.m.
The outage started at about 1:30 a.m. Monday, CBSA spokesperson Luke Reimer said in a texted statement to the Star shortly after 11:30 a.m.
Reimer said the agency is still investigating the cause of the outage, but says there’s no indication of it being a cyberattack.
The outage caused delays in traveller and commercial processing at ports of entry, Reimer said.
The 11 affected airports were Toronto Pearson (YYZ), Billy Bishop (YTZ), John C. Munro in Hamilton (YHM), Macdonald–Cartier in Ottawa (YOW), Montreal-Trudeau (YUL), Jean Lesage in Quebec City (YQB), Vancouver (YVR), Calgary (YYC), Edmonton (YEG), James Armstrong Richardson in Winnipeg (YWG), and Halifax Stanfield (YHZ).
Travellers had been redirected to primary inspection lines for manual processing, Reimer said.
He said border services officers had verified travellers’ identities, received their declarations, and conducted any additional screening warranted by each traveller’s individual circumstances during the outage.
The CBSA invoked its System Outage Contingency Plan, which is its protocol for the importing and exporting of commercial goods in all modes of transportation during a systems outage or processing delay.
The agency worked with trade chain and government partners using alternative measures to ensure the continued flow of goods, Reimer said. Importers can contact the local CBSA commercial office if they are unsure of the status of their goods.
