The perimeter plan’s first year

The following is from the 9 January 2013 edition of Embassy Magazine.

In 2012, the government changed the way Canada operates its border security and trade, and looks set to continue that process this year. The following is a review of some of those changes.

On Dec. 14, the Harper government and the Obama administration released their first joint progress reports for the two elements of the perimeter plan, the mammoth overhaul of the Canadian and United States security and trade regimes that began in 2011.

The plan’s two elements, officially known as Beyond the Border and the Regulatory Cooperation Council, are already revamping existing laws and regulations in both countries. They have begun the process of permitting closer sharing of personal information of foreign nationals, allowing both maritime and land-based agents to chase suspects across the border, and bringing regulations on goods closer together, among other objectives.

The introduction of these changes has brought both praise and criticism on the Harper government, which insists that its perimeter plan will eliminate the $16 billion-a-year hit to Canada’s GDP it says is created by border inefficiencies.

Supporters like the Canadian Council of Chief Executives and the Canadian American Business Council say the plan is promoting economic growth and helping create jobs. But others like Canada’s privacy watchdog and the Council of Canadians have criticized the plan’s handling of Canadians’ personal information.

As well, the CCCE and other business representatives like the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters temper their enthusiasm by noting that the plan has delivered far more on security so far than trade.

“Many of the key measures in the Beyond the Border initiative have yet to be implemented, and some have fallen behind schedule,” reads a Dec. 14 press release from the CCCE.

Here are some of the notable events that happened with the perimeter plan in 2012:

Cross-border policing

The perimeter plan called for maritime cross-border law enforcement, which had been established between Canada and the US only in the form of pilot projects, to be made legally permanent.

The plan also calls for a land-based version of this program to be introduced in future, which would allow agents from, for example, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, to pursue suspects into Canada.

On March 2, Ottawa hosted a “cross-border crime forum” that counted among its attendees US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, US Attorney General Eric Holder, Justice Minister Rob Nicholson, and Public Safety Minister Vic Toews. That meeting discussed maritime cross-border policing.

A new joint intelligence office for cross-border policing was opened in Altona, Manitoba on April 20.

On April 26, the government decided to entrench maritime cross-border policing in law in the spring of 2012 via its first budget implementation bill tabled in the House of Commons.

Embassy reported April 27 that the NDP had called on the Harper government to yank the related amendments to the RCMP Act, the Criminal Code, and the Customs Act it bundled with its budget bill and present them as separate legislation.

Embassy reported May 2 that the cross-border policing plan would include aerial police surveillance over land. It raised several questions over national jurisdiction and police accountability in the minds of opposition and academic observers. A spokesperson for Mr. Toews said the plan is an important partnership between the two countries, and improves the border’s safety, efficiency, and effectiveness.

On May 14, RCMP Chief Superintendent Joe Oliver, the Mounties’ director general for border integrity, told a Senate committee that the RCMP is planning to ease Canadians into the idea of land-based cross-border policing through “baby steps,” and that he “recognized early that this approach would raise concerns about sovereignty, of privacy, and civil liberties of Canadians.”

But even with baby steps, the two governments ran into legal complications. Jean Paul Duval, a spokesperson for Public Safety Canada, wrote in an email to Embassy on Sept. 18 that the plan was “on hold while the legal and governance framework for the program is finalized.”

Meanwhile, on Oct. 12, Mr. Toews and US officials announced the first two permanent locations of the maritime cross-border operations.

The December 2012 perimeter progress report makes specific mention of the land-based cross-border policing program as being delayed due to “challenges that have arisen,” but is still an objective for both governments.

Privacy

The plan also called for a Joint Statement of Privacy Principles on how the two countries will protect personal information, one of the most controversial elements of the undertaking so far.

All indications were that both governments placed a lot of emphasis on the statement. By Feb. 24 to 26, the Conservative government, led by Mr. Toews, held a security “roundtable” in Ottawa that focused on the perimeter plan, and pulled in seemingly all the major politicians, bureaucrats, and officials on the national security file.

The meeting, according to a government website, would turn out to be a preview of many of the major perimeter plan elements over the next several months, including sharing information with the US.

The two governments worked on the joint statement through the spring. By May 27, a few days before the self-imposed deadline, Embassy reported that the federal privacy watchdog had given feedback on a draft.

The joint statement, however, was withheld until June 28. Upon its release, it garnered some criticism concerning the sharing of personal information gathered at the border with third countries. Assistant Privacy Commissioner Chantal Bernier blasted the government in comments to the Canadian Press for crafting a document that could allow personal details of Canadians to be sent to countries with bad human rights records.

Julie Carmichael, a spokesperson for Mr. Toews, wrote in an email that the principles “contain stronger privacy protections than any existing international agreements.”

On Dec. 13, Canada and the United States signed a new treaty to automatically share fingerprints, names, nationalities, birthdays, photos, and other information of refugee claimants and visa applicants to either country.

Pre-clearance

Another element of the perimeter plan is to push more people to become pre-approved at the border, through programs like NEXUS, at designated border crossings and other so-called ports of energy like airports.

The government was quick out of the gate with pre-clearance announcements. On Dec. 22, 2011, days after the perimeter plan was released, the government announced quicker screening at Canada’s eight largest airports.

It followed that up with an announcement on Feb. 14 that NEXUS members who were flying to the US would be able to use membership cards to go through designated security lines for pre-board screening at airports.

Alan Bersin, the assistant secretary of international affairs and chief diplomatic officer at the US Department of Homeland Security, also came to Ottawa to promote pre-screening programs.

He told an audience March 2 that if more people signed up it would allow border agents to thin out the daily bulk of passengers they must check for threats—meaning travellers can bring their business to continental destinations quicker.

On May 8, Canada’s border agency and its US counterpart announced that it was “streamlining” the NEXUS membership renewal process and launching a plan to increase NEXUS membership. Then on July 10, the government announced it was allowing Canadian and Americans living abroad, and those who recently returned home, to apply for NEXUS.

Throughout the fall, the government promoted the NEXUS plan, such as on Oct. 4, when Minister of State for Transport Steven Fletcher and United States Transportation Security Administration Administrator John S. Pistole went to the Ottawa airport to announce the deal.

As well, the government’s second budget implementation bill, which came bundled Oct. 18 with changes to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, created a new mandatory, automated online screening system for all would-be travellers by air to Canada—except US citizens—who don’t have to get a visa.

The government also moved to expand another business pre-clearance program called Free and Secure Trade on Dec. 7 at the Blue Water Bridge in Sarnia, Ont.

This will allow firms in two other programs (Partners in Protection and Customs Self Assessment) to use FAST lanes without having to also be members of both programs.

Meetings and consultations

The perimeter plan is supposed to involve considerable consultations with business and other members of the public. The government reports these meetings, although information on their proceedings is difficult to come by.

From Jan. 30 to 31, for example, representatives from both governments, as well as industry officials, held talks in Washington on the Regulatory Co-operation Council.

Embassy reported on a jam-packed, day-long Jan. 31 meeting involving hundreds of business representatives and top Canadian and US bureaucrats, according to the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters.

The Canada Border Services Agency and US Customs and Border Protection held more talks Feb. 28 to 29 in Niagara Falls, New York, and Toronto. Both talks focused on cross-border trade and security.

On May 14, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and Ms. Napolitano announced joint consultations with stakeholders on cross-border business.

The consultations were wrapped up June 29. According to the government website, it received responses from over a dozen major Canadian and US business groups.

Perhaps the most important meeting happened on June 21, when the Beyond the Border Executive Steering Committee met for the first time. That group oversees the entire perimeter plan’s implementation.

Joint recognition

Programs that recognize each others’ standards, and other co-operation in terms of trade, is another main area of the perimeter plan. There was progress in this area but it was sometimes spotty, according to one business group.

On May 31, the countries agreed to the mutual recognition of air cargo security. That means that cargo that is being shipped on passenger airplanes will only be screened once, at its point of origin, rather than being scanned again when it crosses the Canada-US border.

That was called “cleared once, accepted twice” by the CCCE in their end-of-year press release. The business community is pushing the notion for other cargo such as on rail.

The two countries also announced bi-national port operations committees at eight Canadian airports with American pre-clearance services on June 10.

A few months after the air cargo announcement, an integrated cargo pilot project was launched on Oct. 22.

But in a December press release, the CCCE noted that “the terms of a comprehensive pre-clearance system for land, rail and marine cargo,” which was supposed to have been finished by December, had still not been implemented.