3 December 2004

New phase of U.S. Canada freight shipment scrutiny to begin at Quebec border

The following article is excerpted from the 2 December 2004 edition of the “Ottawa Citizen”.

New York, New Hampshire, Vermont and Quebec will extend an initiative aimed at intercepting containerized freight shipments loaded by terrorists with dangerous materials, New York Gov. George Pataki was expected to announce Thursday.

The states and Quebec will develop radiation detection capabilities for freight passing across their borders, Pataki's office said. They will also test strategies for sharing information among federal, state and local law enforcement officials if a suspicious shipment is detected.

"A significant goal of this phase of the project will be to assess the extent that law enforcement and private security professionals can share real-time information,'' said James McMahon, New York's homeland security director.

Pataki was expected to outline the new agreement at a regional conference Thursday involving homeland security and law enforcement officials from New York, Maine, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont and Canada. …

The first phase of the initiative to monitor the safety of commercial traffic between Canada and the northeastern United States included an inventory of tracking and security technologies for shipping containers and the test-tracking of a handful of shipments. …

Pataki said one aim of the multistate and provincial initiative is to make sure the flow of commercial traffic is not being unduly hampered by the security screening process.