At the request of the CSCB, as part of the BCCC OGD Subcommittee, the CFIA has clarified the process to follow when faxing documentation to them. As members are keenly aware, there are issues surrounding the transmission of faxed documents to CFIA and constant uncertainty as to whether or not CFIA has received the documents required for release.
CFIA has therefore provided the following:
Please note that there are two different procedures, depending in which mode CFIA is operating.
Regular Mode Procedure (Digitalized Documents Store (DDS) is fully operational)
After several attempts (i.e. 3) of not successfully sending transaction request to NISC (613-773-9999), clients are advised to contact NISC (800-835-4486) or NSO (514-493-0468) to advise them that they are having issues and that they will be sending information via email (email account: [email protected]).
If clients do not call prior to sending the email, the Import Specialist may not be aware and the transaction request may sit in the email queue.
Procedures in Business Continuity Plan (BCP) Mode (manual process of faxes)
Clients are to follow the instructions provided in the ListsServ message. Usual instructions are to continue to send requests to (613)773-9999 or by email at [email protected].
Should clients have issues in sending transaction requests via fax (i.e. due to busy signals), it is recommended to try to send requests via email. No pre-calls to NISC and NSO are required as in this situation Import Specialists will be actively monitoring the NISC email queue.
Also … It is highly recommended that clients do not resend documents more than once unless advised by the Import Specialist, as it will create a backlog for the service centres. If clients do not receive a response to a fax within 1 hour, please contact NISC or NSO.
Please note the 1 hour response time is to be followed only if the service centre is not experiencing a delay in processing transaction requests. If the ListServ message states a delay (i.e. a 1 - 2 hour processing delay) and a response has not been received after the maximum time (i.e. 2 hours), please contact NISC or NSO.
The CSCB is interested in knowing if members see any change – for better or worse - in fax communication between themselves and CFIA. Comments can be sent to [email protected].