Border agency chartered luxury private jets to deport foreign nationals

The Canada Border Services Agency spent almost $1-million over two years chartering private aircraft – including luxury long-haul jets – to deport foreign nationals to their home countries, or transfer them to detention within Canada, documents obtained under access to information laws show.

Internal CBSA documents show the federal agency chartered a Dassault Falcon 900EX, a French-built private jet favoured by the super rich, to deport three individuals from Canada in January, 2022, at a cost of $438,000.

In September of that year, it spent another $130,432 to charter a Bombardier Global 5000, a long-range luxury jet, to fly two foreign nationals out of Canada.

The Global 5000 has seating for 14 passengers and carries a price tag of upwards of US$10-million. Among those who have purchased one of the sleek private aircraft is Liverpool Football Club’s billionaire owner John Henry.

Most people removed from Canada leave on commercial flights without escorts, and private jets are only chartered to fly foreign nationals home in extraordinary situations, CBSA said.

“CBSA’s use of chartered aircraft is rare and limited to exceptional circumstances when the use of commercial aircraft is infeasible, with less than five aircraft chartered in total since 2020,” CBSA spokesperson Luke Reimer said in an e-mail.

In February, 2022, CBSA again chartered a Falcon 900EX corporate jet, spending $368,810 to remove two foreign nationals from Canada and fly another to a detention facility in a different part of the country.

In August, 2021, according to the internal documents, CBSA spent $17,244 to charter a small private aircraft to fly a foreign national within Canada to a detention facility.

Mr. Reimer said CBSA would not discuss individual cases, but he said in one instance of a detention transfer within Canada by private plane, commercial air and ground transportation were ruled out “because of the detainee’s medical and risk assessments,” and because “the detainee required an in-Canada transfer to another facility that was approximately 2,300 km away.”

A small number of foreign nationals, including those deemed a risk to the public or of evading removal, are detained in secure facilities in Canada before being deported. Some foreign nationals serving prison terms for criminal activity face deportation after they have served their sentence.

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According to CBSA’s records, which were obtained by Ottawa-based researcher Ken Rubin, the average cost of removing a foreign national from Canada is $13,098 if they are escorted by a border officer. For those who are unescorted or not transported by air, the average cost drops to $3,905.

CBSA figures show that in the 2024-25 fiscal year the agency spent $78,250,480 on removing foreign nationals, and $130,151,809 on detentions.

That rose from the 2023-24 fiscal year, when CBSA spent $65,781,214 on deportations, and $101,359,044 on detentions of foreign nationals not permitted to live in Canada.

Mr. Reimer said the decision to charter a private aircraft could follow a refusal by commercial airlines to fly the detainee, or an assessment by CBSA that “the individual’s behaviour would pose a legitimate threat to themselves or others if they were to board a commercial flight.”

He said there are also extenuating circumstances, such as the need for specialized medical care or a lack of available routing to a deportee’s home country. There may also be “a business case for using a chartered aircraft to transport multiple individuals simultaneously.”

“In these rare and exceptional circumstances when a chartered aircraft may be required, the CBSA uses established standing offers and contracts to achieve the most cost-effective solution,” he added.

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Immigration lawyer Sergio Karas said “most deportations are unescorted and uneventful,” and generally transportation companies are required to carry deportees.

“There are circumstances when the use of a regular carrier is impracticable, either for security or medical reasons, or where an airline refuses the transport for safety reasons, or because the route is not served by a regular airline,” he said.

The CBSA documents said planned spending on removals for the 2025-26 fiscal year was $94,803,467, another increase from the year prior. CBSA planned to spend $199,140,074 on detention of foreign nationals in 2025-26, nearly double what it spent two years prior.

In 2024, provinces decided to end the immigration-detention agreements they had with CBSA to house immigrants in their jails.

Foreign nationals who are not permitted to remain in Canada may now be temporarily detained at one of three CBSA holding centres in Surrey, B.C., Laval, Que., and about eight kilometres away from Toronto’s Pearson Airport.

For the past year, CBSA has housed up to 25 high-risk adult male foreign nationals in a secure section of a federal prison at Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines, Que. The designated area for immigration detainees is separate from the main prison and is run by CBSA.

The practice of holding immigrants in prisons alongside convicted criminals has been sharply criticized by human rights advocates, including Amnesty International.

Mr. Reimer said CBSA considers a number of factors when deciding where to place detainees, including an individual’s medical needs, risk level and behaviour.

“CBSA officers assess each case individually to ensure that detainees are placed in the most appropriate setting based on their circumstances and the facility’s capacity,” he added.