The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) has reminded commercial carriers and customs brokers of a planned systems outage running from the early hours of Saturday 26 September through Sunday 27 September. During the window, all Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) transmissions, eManifest filings and Canadian Export Reporting System (CERS) portal functions will be unavailable. The maintenance—part of CBSA’s monthly release cycle—will occur outside peak traffic hours, but stakeholders moving goods across the border should expect intermittent delays. The agency’s System Outage Contingency Plan allows carriers to present paper documents at ports of entry during an outage and for two hours after systems come back online. Logistics managers are urged to pre-file manifests, print backup documentation and brief drivers on manual release procedures. Failure to follow contingency steps can result in clearance delays or Administrative Monetary Penalties (AMPs). Importers shipping time-sensitive or perishable goods over the weekend should consider advancing loads or rescheduling to avoid potential bottlenecks. The outage also serves as a test of supply-chain resilience ahead of the agency’s larger CARM (CBSA Assessment and Revenue Management) rollout slated for mid-2027, when most commercial import declarations will migrate to a new digital platform.
Source: Canada Border Services Agency
