REVEALED: CBSA renews crisis actor contracts for $5M through 2030
The Canada Border Services Agency has renewed a contract for actors taking part in simulations to assess future border officers at its main training campus, even as the agency moves forward with sweeping cuts to its workforce.
The Canada Border Services Agency has renewed its contract for professional actors who play travellers in officer training, at a recorded value of $5 million through March 31, 2030.
The contract appears in the agency's proactive disclosure of contracts for the second quarter of 2026-27 on the federal open data portal, dated July 24. No other outlet has reported the renewal, but the agency's use of actors in training was reported by The Canadian Press in 2019.
The record names the vendor as 6954251 Canada Inc of Hudson, Quebec, and describes the work as "SERVICE D'ACTEURS PROFESSIONNELS," which is French for professional actors' services. A second row, dated one day earlier, repeats the vendor and amount under "Tuition fees/costs-courses.”
The value is a ceiling over about three years and eight months, which equals out to be roughly $1.4 million a year. The same vendor received $272,000 in January 2025 for "option year 3" of the previous contract.
The 2021 federal tender for the original contract outlines the work taking place at the agency’s college in Rigaud, Quebec, its primary training campus, where prospective Border Services Officers (BSOs) are assessed. "In order to assess the future BSOs, CBSA may require the services of up to 45 actors to take part in simulations, in one day,” it reads.
Hudson Productions, a theatre company in Hudson, Quebec, says on its website that it "acts as an actors' agency, supplying actors to the Canadian Customs and Excise College in Rigaud for the training of Canadian customs officers". An unofficial mirror of the federal corporate registry lists the directors of 6954251 Canada Inc as Heather Markgraf and Bert Markgraf, the founders named on the Hudson Productions site.
This renewal comes in a year of cuts. In its May 28 briefing for the Commons public safety committee, the agency said "CBSA's budget was reduced by two percent, or approx. $52 million" and "CBSA is reducing its workforce by 348 employees (18 executives and 330 non-executives), only in national headquarters.”
Nothing in the record links the contract to the cuts.
The agency is led by President Erin O'Gorman, appointed effective July 18, 2022, and reports to Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree who has recused himself from decisions involving the listed terrorist entity, the LTTE (Tamil Tigers), following his documented associations with the World Tamil Movement.
As the agency slashes 348 headquarters positions, it has earmarked up to $5 million for crisis actors through 2030, leaving Canadians to wonder: whose priorities are being served?
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