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 News from Around the Americas | May 2006 
Canadians Fear Fallout from Mexico Rules
 Doug Struck - Washington Post
| | Premier Jean Charest of Quebec, left, with Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas (R) after a meeting of Canadian and U.S. officials last week in Newport, R.I. Charest said Monday of tighter U.S. policies, "We don't want the border to become an obstacle to trade and mobility." (Joe Giblin/AP) |
Toronto - Every 4.7 seconds, on average, a cargo truck rumbles across the border from Canada to the United States. More than 6,000 passenger cars cross to the United States every hour. Inspectors on both sides wave through nearly 70 million visitors a year.
Officials in both countries fear that President Bush's tough new measures on the Mexican border will increase calls for tighter restrictions on movement over the bridges and highways leading in and out of Canada. Canadian officials already are trying to fight a U.S. plan to require a passport or a new identity card for travelers at the land border by Jan. 1, 2008.
"We all recognize the border is important, and security is the number one issue. But we don't want the border to become an obstacle to trade and mobility," Jean Charest, the premier of Quebec, said Monday in an interview from Montreal.
Charest met with New England governors and the officials of four other Canadian provinces Friday to propose a delay in the U.S. rules. U.S. and Canadian citizens do not now need a passport, and most of the vehicles that pass through the 130 entry points along the border go through with a wave or cursory stop.
"The daily story of our respective countries is the hockey teams that cross the borders every day, trade that goes on, people who shop on the other side," Charest said. "This is going to affect a lot of people."
While illegal immigration is the focus at the Mexican border, U.S. Homeland Security officials have complained that the largely unguarded Canadian border, stretching more than 5,000 miles across land and water, provides easy entry for terrorists and drug dealers. Canadians say guns and criminals flow north.
As calls for increased security on the Mexican border have increased, the Bush administration has talked about increasing electronic surveillance, adding border guards and toughening entry requirements at the Canadian border.
"We are concerned that you don't have a one-size-fits-all policy. The challenges on the southern border are completely different than the northern border," said Scotty Greenwood, executive director of the Canadian American Business Council in Washington.
In Niagara Falls, Ontario, Doreen Wilson, director of sales for White Glove Tour and Reception, said she already has received cancellations from tourists worried about the new passport requirements, even though the rules do not take effect until next January for air travelers and Jan. 1, 2008, for travelers by land.
"This sort of thing just wreaks havoc with tourism," she said Monday. "Our clients are people taking driving vacations because they can't afford flying vacations. We are not talking about frequent fliers or world travelers. It's basically families, and if you add another $100 a person to get a passport, it won't happen. They will say, 'I can use that money to go to a theme park instead of going to Canada.' "
U.S. passports cost $97, and surveys estimate that only about 20 percent of U.S. citizens have one.
In Parliament on Monday, critics of Prime Minister Stephen Harper accused him of failing to pressure Bush enough on the issue when the two men met in Cancun, Mexico, in March.
The passport plan "will be terribly costly and useless in terms of security," said Serge Menard, a member of Bloc Quebecois. He said Harper is "blindly following the American administration."
Stockwell Day, the Conservative public safety minister, said the Harper government is trying to lessen the impact of the border restrictions. U.S. officials have proposed an identity document for American citizens that would be cheaper than a U.S. passport for use at the border, but have not yet worked out details.
Critics say no matter what document is required, stopping every car and truck to examine papers will create huge traffic jams.
"If you are stopped at a busy crossing, then everyone backed up behind you is stopped, too," Greenwood said. |
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