The federal government plans to spend $396 million over five years on a computerized risk-assessment system it hopes will keep trade flowing smoothly across the Canada-U.S. border amid fears of crime and terrorism.

The high-tech system, known as eManifest, is intended to give the Canadian Border Services Agency advance information on every Canada-bound truck and rail car. It mirrors a system being phased in on the U.S. side of the border.

Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day plans $431.6 million in border security spending over five years.
(Fred Chartrand/Canadian Press)

It is part of a $431.6-million border security package announced Friday by Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day, who chose Windsor, Ont. — a major choke point when crossings are snarled — as a backdrop.

The eManifest project "will provide the CBSA with electronic data that allows for 100 per cent automated risk assessment before shipments reach the border," a statement from Day's office said.

"Highway and rail carriers will be required to submit, electronically and pre-arrival, all cargo, crew and conveyance information. This will allow the CBSA to have the right information at the right time to make informed decisions."

The agency will also get $24 million to "further harmonize and strengthen its business resumption planning with the United States" to keep trade moving in the event of an "incident" or "emergency" at the border, the statement said.

Another $11.6 million will go to a Partners in Protection program that seeks the help of private industry to fight terrorism, organized crime and smuggling, it said. The program, called PIP, is to be co-ordinated with a U.S. effort called Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT).

Speaking to reporters in Windsor, Day stressed the cost of even a brief border shutdown.

"If trucks are stopped  because of an incident for an hour, that begins to create problems," he said.

"The Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters Association and other groups have run the numbers on how short a period of time it would be if, for instance, the bridge here was closed; how only in a matter of several hours production lines would begin to stop in various parts of our country, the United States and possibly Mexico.

"That's how important it is to have the ability for business to continue, for the movement of traffic to continue and business to be resumed, should an incident ever take place."