sa国际传媒 and the U.S. have signed an agreement to address wait times at border crossings. That鈥檚 certainly a worthy objective. Whatever can be done to speed things up should be tried. That said, this particular deal looks like a classic diplomat鈥檚 manoeuvre 鈥� more flag-waving than substance.
The idea is to establish pre-clearing sites at the main road crossings. That would mean U.S. customs officials would set up shop on the Canadian side of the border, and vice versa.
Airports did this some years ago. Someone flying from Vancouver to Los Angeles can clear customs in sa国际传媒 rather than the U.S. That can save a lengthy wait in L.A., where security staff are often swamped.
Yet it鈥檚 unclear how, if at all, this will help road traffic. There are already accelerated Nexus passes for people who make regular crossings.
But for the typical visitor or tourist who comes by car, nothing will change. Unless the two countries mean to reform their security regimes, it will take just as long to pre-screen car traffic as to process it in the usual way. Yet it is these travellers who suffer most from lengthy delays.
So why all the pomp and circumstance of an official signing ceremony in Washington, D.C., followed by a joint press conference?
After the 9/11 attacks on the U.S., cross-border traffic plummeted. And in central sa国际传媒, it has still not recovered.
Last year, the number of passenger vehicles entering New York state from Ontario remained well below the pre-9/11 era. Passenger traffic to Michigan was down a whopping 61 per cent.
The resulting damage to trade has hurt economies on both sides of the border. So no doubt there was pressure for some kind of announcement.
But if pre-clearing isn鈥檛 the solution, what should have been done? Let鈥檚 shift the focus from the centre of sa国际传媒 to the West Coast.
While border traffic between sa国际传媒 and the U.S. did decline after the attacks of 2001, it has long since recovered.
Nearly 35 per cent more vehicles entered sa国际传媒 from Washington state last year than in the 12 months preceding 9/11. Car traffic in the opposite direction is also up substantially.
The problem isn鈥檛 too little traffic; it鈥檚 too much. As anyone familiar with the routine at major checkpoints knows, the waits can be brutal. Lineups in the two-to-three-hour range are not unheard of at Peace Arch, particularly during holiday periods.
Two problems in particular stand out. The first is a lack of adequate resources.
There鈥檚 nothing more infuriating than waiting in a line-up when some of the checkpoint booths are empty.
But even when they鈥檙e all staffed, the capacity isn鈥檛 there to handle peak occasions. So how about expanding it?
The second problem lies in outmoded security procedures. Partly it鈥檚 overkill. Does it matter if a visitor from California has a small amount of medical marijuana? Of course not. But the Canadian border service thinks it does.
Is there any harm in a sa国际传媒 traveller to the U.S. bringing a bag of grapes to eat? No, but try it and see what happens.
Partly it鈥檚 outmoded technology. There are better ways to detect drugs or explosives than pulling vehicles over and checking every nook and cranny by hand.
However, the real obstacle is one of attitude. Plain and simple, customer service is not a concept here.
No airline would tolerate the sort of thing that goes on at land crossings. But airline companies have clout. The ordinary tourist has none.
We can fix this problem. But only with a change in mindset.
It鈥檚 time our border agencies scaled back on officialdom and rolled out the welcome mat instead.
