Canada Border Services Agency: Budget Cuts

Dan Robinson Dept: According to the survey, just three per cent of employees at Canada's second-busiest airport rated morale as "positive" and even the Canada Border Services Agency admits in an internal report that this has since become a "running joke." Customs and Immigration Union local president Dan Robinson described YVR as "one of the unhappiest places on Earth.", according to Vancouver Sun. About 1,351 CBSA officers learned their jobs would be affected following cuts in last year's budget. Spending figures for 2013-14 released following last month's budget show about $141 million in cuts to the department and Border guards at Vancouver International Airport are miserable, according to a recent employee survey obtained by Postmedia News that suggests managers don't communicate with staff, "nepotism and cronyism" are rampant, officers don't feel adequately trained and morale is at an all-time low. But dissatisfaction among border officers, he and others argue, doesn't end in B.C. They say it extends right across the country, in large part due to budget cuts and belt-tightening as the government seeks to slay the deficit. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.