These three Customs Notices appeared to have been updated by CBSA yesterday, but further investigation with CBSA has confirmed that in fact there have been no policy changes to these Notices, and they appeared on the CBSA web site in error.

 

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The American plan to require passports for all Canadian travellers is a "leap of faith" with unknown economic consequences, says a new report.

 

The Network on North American Studies in Canada is warning that no one on either side of the border has done a comprehensive study of the economic impact of the move….

 

Since the start of this year, Canadian air travellers to the U.S. have been required to show a passport under the so-called Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative. It will be extended to land and sea border points by 2009.

 

Abelson [of the University of Western Ontario] said the policy has already cost Canada hundreds of millions in lost tourism revenue and is urging a broad study of the economic impact.

 

The report says there are a number of issues, from tourism to privacy, that still must be addressed. It urges governments to make a bigger effort to tell people about the changes which are coming because high percentages of people in Canada and the U.S. are ill-informed on the issue.

 

It also calls for close co-operation between governments to solve the technological and social issues that surround the passport question. Without such co-operation, the border could end up clogged beyond imagining, Abelson warned.

 

The Americans are talking about a sort of wallet-sized passport for crossing the border, but that's still in the planning stages. The state of Washington is preparing a pilot project to use a souped-up driver's licence as a border-crossing document.

 

There is also talk of using biometric technology to encode fingerprints or retinal patterns in a passport or similar document.