New high-tech equipment used to detect contraband at Canadian borders is not living up to its billing. The scanners are used to in inspect transport trucks and shipping containers.
Documents obtained by Postmedia News through access-to-information legislation indicate that too many of the new scanners at 12 land and marine crossings across Canada are not reliable.
Data show the new Heimann Cargo Vision Mobile systems were in use–on average–for just 24 days in 2012. The machines were broken and out of service an average of 37 days. Halifax and Montreal had the most days when the $2.5 scanners were not working.
Canada is phasing in the new scanners to replace a fleet of out-of-date mobile gamma-ray scanners called Vehicle and Cargo Inspection Systems.
Inspectors say the new scanners provide a clearer image than the old units and are good at detecting large quantities of contraband. But they add they are useless against smaller contraband such a pound of cocaine, money hidden in an engine block or as a small number of handguns.
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