Canada's Auditor General reported on October 29 that the CARM customs system processed commercial import declarations effectively but still depends on inefficient workarounds and slow business support.

The audit identified 38 manual workarounds. Assistance requests took an average of 34 days to resolve, and more than 4,000 remained outstanding as of June 2026.

Those figures describe the audit period. They are not a live count of open cases, and 34 days is not a forecast of how long your shipment waits at the border.

A Working Portal Can Still Create Risk

CARM is the Canada Border Services Agency's assessment and revenue-management system for commercial imports. It became the official system of record in October 2024.

In its October 29 response, the CBSA said the portal was available 99% of the time and that more than 263,000 businesses use it.

Availability and support speed answer different questions. A site can stay accessible while an importer cannot resolve an account, accounting, or permissions problem.

The precaution the audit supports is specific: do not leave an unfamiliar CARM workflow until the week inventory arrives. It does not establish that Canadian imports are broadly disrupted or that sellers need to change shipping routes.

Confirm the Account Before You Ship

Establish which business is importing the goods and which account will be used. Make sure whoever manages the shipment can access the relevant records.

The CBSA's business setup instructions cover registration, the importer account, and delegation to a customs broker. Non-resident importers have to obtain a business number from the Canada Revenue Agency before completing CARM registration.

If you use a broker, hiring the firm does not complete the portal relationship. Confirm the required delegation is active and that both sides agree on who handles which task.

That guidance also recommends a second business account manager. Worth checking in a small operation where one employee might otherwise control the entire workflow.

These are existing requirements. The audit did not create them or add a registration deadline.

Keep Payment and Release Terms Explicit

Discuss Release Prior to Payment with your broker rather than assuming it applies. The CBSA's instructions describe enrollment and financial security as part of that arrangement.

Ask for a written explanation of what your account and shipment require. Do not rely on a years-old checklist or assume another importer's setup matches yours.

How customs brokers help prevent importing mistakes covers the broker's role in classification, documentation, and planning. It predates CARM, so use current CBSA instructions for portal procedures.

Keep invoices, payment confirmations, account references, and broker correspondence together. When something goes wrong, a complete record cuts the time spent reconstructing events.

It also helps separate an administrative support issue from a dispute over classification or valuation. Those need different expertise, and submitting another portal ticket will not fix them.

Put a Number on Avoidable Delay

Take a small Canadian replenishment shipment. If an unresolved issue adds five storage days at C$80 per day, that is C$400 before extra handling.

An illustration, not a published CARM charge or a prediction of typical delays.

The larger cost is usually missed availability, but estimate that conservatively. Use contribution on sales you reasonably expect to lose rather than the retail value of every unit in transit.

A pre-shipment account review earns its keep even when most imports clear normally, because its purpose is catching preventable problems while there is still time.

Build a Usable Escalation Record

If you already have an unresolved issue, document the case number, submission date, affected account, shipment references, and the exact action you need. Ask your broker which interim options fit the situation.

Do not assume the audit grants relief from payment, accounting, or filing obligations. Confirm any proposed workaround with the responsible professional or agency contact.

Before the next Canadian shipment leaves origin, verify account access, broker delegation, and the agreed release and payment arrangements. Then assign one person to track unresolved cases.

That is the lesson from the audit, without turning a documented support problem into a claim of a border-wide breakdown.