Canadian border guards are spending too much time searching shoppers when they should be looking for threats to the country, according to the Senate security and defence committee.

In its third national security report, the defence committee said the Canadian government should be willing to forgo "what amounts to small change in the world of taxation" to buy Canadians security.

"The people who should get the Government of Canada’s attention at our borders are would-be criminals or terrorists — not shoppers who got a little carried away at a factory outlet somewhere," the report states.

"Border inspectors need to spend less time looking for extra bottles of duty-free whiskey and more time trying to identify people who might be a genuine threat to Canada."

It notes that the amount of duties collected account for only 0.147 per cent of national revenue (around $95 million), funds that could be recovered through other forms of taxation.

"The government should quit pretending that there are rational arguments for devoting so many of its resources to the collection of relatively small amounts of money from ordinary tourists," the report states.

'Let's have them protect the border'

Liberal Senator Colin Kenny, who heads the committee, said a customs officer should be concentrating on asking questions to test whether the person is "going to be problematic."

"Let's stop having these guys be tax collectors and accountants and let's have them protect the border."

But officials from the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) do not have the resources or training to effectively screen persons who are a potential threat to Canada, the report states.

The panel offers a number of recommendations, including:

• Raising personal exemptions of persons re-entering Canada to $2,000 a trip.
• Improve electronic technology to better identify people and vehicles crossing the border.
• Accelerate the move to arm border guards. In the interim, place RCMP officers at all border crossings or hire off-duty police officers to provide protection to border guards.

The committee also calls for "property swaps" at all bridges and tunnels connecting Canada and the U.S., meaning "Canada owns snippets of the U.S. and the United States owns little snippets of Canada."

These "transfers of sovereignty" would allow border officers to pre-clear persons entering their country before they cross a bridge or enter a tunnel and thwart potential attacks on crossing structures.

"The danger of this system is that an uninspected vehicle could stop in the middle of a tunnel or bridge and explode a bomb, disabling a crossing vital to the well-being of Canadians," said the report.

"Reverse inspections, a process under which people and goods would be subject to examination prior to departure from their country of origin, would lessen this vulnerability."