Official Comment of the Government of Canada: Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative
Summary
The Government of Canada recognizes and shares your commitment to a secure and well functioning border. The United States and Canada have been working together to address the threat of terrorism and enhance the security of our citizens while ensuring the increasing and vital flow of legitimate goods, services, and people across our shared border.
The Canada - U.S. border underpins the greatest trading relationship in the world and sees the movement of three hundred thousand people every day. For this reason, changes to document requirements on either side of the border – if not done right – have the potential to disrupt the health of our economies, including tourist industries, and countless other businesses like the North American automotive industry, who rely on a border that is at once secure and efficient. It would also cause significant disruption in shared border communities across Canada and the United States. Backlogs and congestion themselves create security vulnerabilities. Accordingly, it is critical that we enhance security and streamline the movement of low-risk travellers and trade. We therefore propose to:
- partner together to keep the border working for legitimate travellers and trade;
- strengthen the foundations for establishing identity and citizenship in our respective passport-issuance processes, and the security of the documents used for this purpose, with the increased engagement of states and provinces in identity authentication;
- work jointly to identify and assess the best options for alternative documents to be required in the land border context;
- conduct necessary live pilots of the preferred options at high volume land border crossings to evaluate if and how they will enable both countries to meet security and facilitation objectives; and
- based on joint assessment and evaluation, make binational recommendations on documentary requirements at our shared border and how to implement them, taking into account the need to ensure that the appropriate resources and infrastructure are available to guarantee the smooth functioning of border crossings and to ensure that required documents are affordable and accessible.
We must ensure that our shared goal of increased security does not compromise the important cooperation between our governments to date and put at risk the economic livelihood of millions who rely on the security and efficiency of our shared border. While we are prepared to move quickly on the action plan described above, the Government of Canada is concerned that the work required may not be completed within the established timeframe, given the complexity and magnitude of the work to be completed and the need to develop new technologies to support the solutions eventually selected. It is extremely important that we take the time required to get this right.
1. Partners Together
Security and prosperity for both our countries depend on getting our border management right.
The United States and Canada are each other's largest trading partners. We are also defence and security allies in North America and internationally. We are bound by history, geography and shared values. Requiring passports, or passport-like documents, as the only way for legal travel across the shared land border - for business people, service workers, aboriginal communities, amateur sports teams, friends, families and tourists - would impact historic and vital relationships. This is particularly true of communities that are intimately intertwined, with daily trips across our shared border to go to school or work, to obtain services, or to buy bread or to visit a library.
Since September 11, 2001, the U.S. and Canada have worked together closely to address the threats to our shared security and to develop a smarter border. The December 2001 Smart Borders Accord is a testament to this deep cooperation. Through its 32-point Action Plan, Canada and the U.S. are building a highly efficient and secure border. Our common goal, as both President Bush and Prime Minister Martin agreed in November 2004, is to keep our borders open for business but closed to terrorism (Joint Statement by Canada and the United States on Common Security, Common Prosperity: A New Partnership in North America - November 30, 2004).
Anchoring its commitment to North American security, Canada has increased national security and border services funding by some U.S.$7.7 billion (CDN$9.5 billion) since 2001. There are now 23 Canada-U.S. Integrated Border Enforcement Teams (IBETs) from coast to coast along our shared border in 15 strategic regions. Joint teams of Canadian and U.S. customs officials have been established at several of our major ports to target marine containers arriving from abroad. Recently the U.S. and Canada announced the establishment of a partnership under the Container Security Initiative. Staff from U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Canada Border Services Agency will work cooperatively abroad to screen containers before they are loaded on ships destined for North America. Canada has also deployed Migration Integrity Officers at 39 key overseas locations, resulting in interdiction in 2004 of over 6000 improperly documented persons before they reached North America. These are but a few examples of our commitment to secure borders.
Most recently, in the context of the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) announced on March 23, 2005, President Bush, President Fox and Prime Minister Martin committed to securing North America from external and internal threats and further streamlining the secure movement of low risk traffic across our shared borders.
Under the SPP, the U.S. has committed to working with Canada to develop technical standards for the issuance, authentication, validation, and repudiation of travel documents such as passports, visas and permanent resident cards, and other border documents, including recommendations on lower-cost, secure proof of status and nationality documents to facilitate cross border travel.
2. Keep the Borders Working for Legitimate Travellers and Traders
We need to be fully aware of the economic and border processing impacts that new documentation requirements at the land border will have on the more than 100 million people who cross the Canada-U.S. border annually.
According to the statement by the Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America to the U.S. Senate hearing on the impact of the WHTI on Safety and Convenience in Cross-Border Travel (June 8, 2005), Canadian visits generated $10.9 billion for the U.S. national economy in 2003 alone. However, as the Chamber of Commerce also stated in its submission: "It is impossible to quantify with any precision the commercial impact of the new document requirements under the WHTI because we still do not know what they will be. However, it can be reasonably estimated that if the document requirements are too strict the impact on the American economy will be severe".
Similarly, on July 29, 2005, the Canadian Tourism Commission released a study on the potential impact of the WHTI, using the assumption of a current passport as the designated accepted document that establishes the bearer's identity and citizenship. For the period between 2005 and 2008, the study estimates that a WHTI passport requirement would result in a cumulative loss of some 3.5 million outbound trips by Canadians to the U.S., and a loss in direct receipts to the U.S. tourism industry of U.S.$667 million (CDN$785 million). The impact would not only be felt in border communities but also in many other states, including for example, Florida, Arizona and California. According to the same study, Canada would experience a cumulative loss of nearly 7.7 million inbound trips by Americans and an estimated gross shortfall in direct receipts by the Canadian tourism industry of U.S.$1.43 billion (Canadian $1.7 billion).
These potential negative impacts may not be limited to the tourism sectors. Border congestion resulting from this initiative could also slow down and congest our key border crossings leading to increased border crossing time and additional cost for manufacturers, importers and exporters who move their products across our shared border. This would likely lead to increased costs that could be passed along to U.S. and Canadian consumers and result in these products and the associated industries being less competitive with external competitors. This, in turn, could also lead to decreased investment in both countries.
The issue is not simply economics. Backlogs themselves can create new security vulnerabilities and other unintended effects. For example, goods at rest can become potential targets for tampering by terrorists or by those involved with contraband and idling engines can have significant environmental impacts.
3. Security of Identity Documentation
The Government of Canada fully supports and recognizes the sovereign right of any country to enhance the security of its borders through improved documentation or other requirements. Canada and the U.S. must continually evaluate entry requirements in order to improve security and efficiency. We recognize that the main intent of the WHTI is to address the concern that many documents commonly used by U.S. citizens do not incorporate security features and are products of issuance processes which lack sufficient integrity.
As part of Canada's ongoing work to enhance the integrity of its own document processes, Canada is currently engaged in efforts to ensure Canadian documents align with international standards for trans-border travel. We believe this would adequately meet the citizenship and identity requirements under the WHTI. While recognizing that Canadian and U.S. passports meet or exceed international standards, we believe that until the processes for establishing identify and citizenship are improved and foundation documents such as birth certificates are enhanced and secured, documents based on them will not in themselves improve our shared security. If we support an approach that results in large numbers of seemingly secure documents which are themselves based on unreliable documents, we will create a false sense of security and may even increase risk.
Thus we propose to work with the United States to strengthen the foundations for establishing identity and citizenship in our respective passport-issuance processes, and the security of the documents used for this purpose, including driver's licenses and birth certificates. This will require the increased engagement of states and provinces in identity authentication.
4. Documentary Options
Canada believes, in the context of the unique Canada-U.S. border relationship, that a passport, or a passport-like document, should not be the only basis for legal travel across our shared border. We believe that we can and should explore a wide range of options. These include documents that most U.S. and Canadian citizens need to obtain in any event, including citizenship or Status Indian cards, birth certificates, and drivers' licences, as well as passport-like documents or documents issued under a secure frequent traveller program. In this respect, we fully support exploring and evaluating proposals by jurisdictions such as Michigan and Ontario to develop enhanced drivers' licences that could also meet WHTI requirements.
The obvious benefits to both Canada and the U.S. of existing programs that have been designed to secure and facilitate the cross-border movement of goods and frequent travellers, such as Free and Secure Trade (FAST) and NEXUS Highway, should be maintained. Options should also be considered to enhance the security of program membership documents consistent with ICAO document standards.
We propose to work jointly with the United States to identify and assess the best options for alternative documents to be required in the land border context.
5. Pilot the Options and Develop Joint Recommendations
Until any new alternate document requirement is thoroughly tested, including in a high volume land border environment, we will not be able to accurately evaluate the impact on security, facilitation or efficiency. Therefore, we propose that the preferred options be thoroughly tested to ensure that they can meet the challenges of our most important crossings. Based on joint assessment and evaluation, we would propose to make binational recommendations on what documents should be required at our shared border and how these new requirements should be implemented.
A number of key questions have been asked about whether WHTI can be implemented efficiently and on time. What are the costs and the planning requirements, including binational coordination, to build the infrastructure at the border to implement these new documentary requirements (technological, physical, environmental, operational)? The binational recommendations should take into account the need to ensure that appropriate resources and infrastructure are put in place prior to implementation to ensure the continued smooth functioning of border crossings.
We will also need to determine if there will be enough capacity to process millions of new passports or a new alternative document which has yet to be developed. Keeping required documents affordable and accessible will also be crucial. The majority of visitors across our land border arrive by motor vehicle. Many are spontaneous visitors i.e discretionary, same-day, or short-term overnight travellers without passports. While efforts could be made in both our countries to increase the numbers of people with passports, only about 23% of the American population currently have passports. In Canada, the figure is slightly higher, some 37% of the population.
Those millions of cross-border travellers, particularly spontaneous visitors, who currently cross the border using drivers' licences or birth certificates or other forms of common identification, will not willingly or easily apply for a passport or passport-like document given the costs and time-frames involved. This is particularly true of the many families with young children who travel by car to either Canada or the United States for a weekend, to visit family, or to go on vacation.
We must therefore ensure that any new required documentation is affordable for all U.S. and Canadian travellers and that processes for obtaining these documents be both simple and quick.
We are concerned that the implementation of new WHTI requirements will cause delays and congestion at the border. We urge a flexible approach to eventual implementation of WHTI requirements based on risk management principles. We need to carefully consider how best to address and process millions of ordinary Americans and Canadians who will seek to cross the border, as they have always done.
We will need to ensure that citizens of both countries are made aware of new document requirements. Implementation plans will need to adequately consider the fact that, despite a concerted communications strategy, many individuals will arrive at the border unaware of the new requirements. Consideration must also be given to numerous other challenges including border communities, from Alaska to New Brunswick, where individuals are accustomed to accessing health or commercial services on the other side of the border because those services are much closer than alternatives within their own country.
The success of the initiative will also be dependent on the development and implementation of new technologies which will permit the processing of secure documents in an effective and efficient manner. Without these new technologies border congestion is a certainty.
6. Take the Time to Get it Right
Canada has noted with great interest statements of concern within the United States - at the political level, among business and community stakeholders, and by individual citizens. Many have questioned whether this initiative will truly result in greater security for Americans and whether there will be serious economic impacts and border congestion.
These questions and concerns are increasingly being expressed by key sectors, in addition to the tourism industry, such as the transportation sector and importers and exporters. They are very concerned that the initiative has the potential to cause delays and congestion at the border that would negatively impact travel and commerce at our already busy border crossings.
We also note mounting concerns and some confusion about when and how new requirements will be put into effect. This is already having negative impacts, for example on planning for future activities such as conventions.
Canada believes that it will take time and considerable effort to develop a "toolbox" of document options. Whatever options are proposed must not only be tested; they will also require a large investment in people, technology and infrastructure if they are truly going to make our border more secure and more efficient. We are prepared to move quickly on the action plan described above but all of this may not be achievable by January 1, 2008. We recommend that this work be undertaken and advanced as quickly as possible. There should be ongoing evaluation of progress and assessment of the required timeframe to develop and implement practical and efficient solutions. However, given the complexity and magnitude of the work to be completed, we expect that an extension to the implementation date will likely be required. It is extremely important that we take the time required to get this right.
Canada looks forward to continuing to work collaboratively with the United States on this important matter.
