CIFFA leads the way with key Ministerial meetings in Ottawa

Strategic advocacy & communications with federal officials showing strong results

Last week in Ottawa (May 25 and 26) CIFFA Corp’s Bruce Rodgers (Executive Director,) Julia Kuzeljevich (Director, Policy and Regulatory Affairs,) accompanied by Benjamin Martin (Government Relations Lead Advisor) held several successful meetings with Ministers and other key federal officials.

On May 25, CIFFA met with CBSA officials, including Cathy Toxopeus, Director General, Commercial Programs Directorate, and Mike Leahy, Director General to discuss updates on border clearance and system outages, future collaboration between CBSA and CIFFA and a briefing on the e-commerce Low Value Inspection System (ELVIS) Project.  It was a positive discussion that focused on technical aspects of the required effort to truly “solve” the ongoing outages and delays topic which has seized both trade chain partners and CBSA in addressing.

CIFFA met with the Minister of Public Safety Gary Anandasangaree, Parliamentary Secretary to the minister Jacques Ramsay and CBSA Vice-President, Commercial and Trade Branch Jennifer Lutfallah on the ongoing issue of system outages and delays associated with the need for federal investments into aging digital infrastructure that underpin the customs and trade sector. The meeting provided an update on the situation around the delays and outages, and to better understand how CIFFA, CBSA and the Minister can better collaborate, along with other trade chain partners, towards fully addressing these issues, and what the actual “next steps” are to deal with the fluid issue of outages and delays.

Next, CIFFA met with the Shadow Minister of International Trade Adam Chambers to introduce the association and discuss trade-related issues and to hear an update on business at the Standing Committee on International trade (CIIT.)

On May 26, CIFFA had a meeting with Senator Jim Quinn, a member of the Standing Senate Committee on Transport & Communications (TRCM,) to discuss an upcoming report on the Senate labour study “Maintenance of transport services in the case of labour disruptions” and other supply chain initiatives under the federal government.

CIFFA received an official Global Affairs Canada trade briefing with Ricardo del Castillo, Deputy Director, Tariffs and Goods Market Access Division. Mr. Del Castillo provided a thorough update into current trade agreements and those in progress, including ASEAN, MERCOSUR, India, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, the UAE, and an update on ratification of the Canada EU trade agreement (CETA.)

CIFFA later met with the Minister of Transport Steve MacKinnon to recognize numerous efforts underway by the Minister of Transport and Transport Canada officials towards strengthening trade corridors and the supply chain, while calling for a public-facing national supply chain strategy. Other points of discussion included the development of a National Trade Single Window initiative and continued efforts to address efficiency at Canadian ports. CIFFA is currently engaged in a major transportation and supply chain consultation with Transport Canada and eagerly awaits the results of that work.

In the afternoon, CIFFA presented its feedback on the draft 2026–2029 federal sustainable development strategy to officials from Environment and Climate Change Canada. CIFFA supports the direction of the draft strategy and the importance of federal leadership on sustainable development, and encourages the Government of Canada to strengthen the final strategy by more clearly addressing the role of customs and logistics providers – including SMEs – supporting practical transition pathways, improving trade corridor resilience and ensuring that implementation is coordinated and commercially realistic.

Lastly, CIFFA met with members of the ESDC Ministerial Policy Advisory Team, including Sebastian Clarke, (Director of Policy) and Amen Ben Ahmouda (Senior Policy Advisor) to discuss several important advocacy points CIFFA has raised to the Minister and her team at the Parliamentary level.

CIFFA has made several official submissions to various parliamentary and senate committees around topics including labour, working conditions and wage misclassification (Driver Inc.), and the use of Section 107 (which states that the labour minister, where expedient or necessary to secure industrial peace, may refer questions to the CIRB or direct the Board to do things the Minister deems necessary.)

Most recently, CIFFA submitted a consultative paper to ESDC on labour (Building Canada Strong for All – A Framework for Labour Relations), something that builds on the release of CIFFA’s January 2026 whitepaper on labour, “Leveraging Canada’s Labour Advantage – A Team Canada Approach to Labour Relations.” CIFFA applauds the efforts of Minister Hajdu and her team in addressing complex issues and, in particular, supports the new Workforce Alliances initiative.

As we move forward in addressing the challenges facing our national supply chain, CIFFA stands ready to collaborate with federal officials to ensure a holistic approach is taken to better reduce bottlenecks, increase capacity and ultimately, enhance the prosperity and wellbeing of all Canadians.