Editorials and Op-Eds

"Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff took the gloves off last week. In response to complaints of the long lines at international border crossings and strengthened identity requirements at the end of this month, Chertoff didn't mince words.

"But if the economy needs a shot in the arm, why is the president at the same time giving it a poke in the eye?

"Border crossings may take longer as new federal rules tightening the comings and goings between the U.S. and Canada go into effect Jan. 31.

"Border delays, customs administration, and security policies have combined to raise the costs of trade more than the benefits delivered by NAFTA's tariff reductions and eliminations.

"Not that long ago, it seemed certain that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security would push forward with plans to require passports at land border crossings starting this week.

"Balancing border security and free-flowing trade is one of the tough tasks facing federal officials in the modern era.

"Millions of Michigan residents stand to benefit from a new initiative to enhance the security of our driver's licenses.

-Michigan Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land (D)

"Recent traffic holdups at the Peace Bridge, at the Queenston- Lewiston Bridge and right across the northern American border stem, a couple of informed sources say, from concerns about a possible terrorist attack this summer. That's a serious matter, as Americans have learned all too painfully."

"To that extent, Americans have little choice but to make the best of increased vigilance at the border, but that doesn't mean they have no recourse or that both government and travelers can't take steps to ease the backups in the future...The delays in crossing from Canada into the United States are serious, often measured in multiple hours. The cost to the entire border-region economy, here and across the country, could be catastrophic."

"The federal government went to a lot of effort to notify the American people that new passport rules were going into effect in January. That's when Americans returning to the United States by air from Western Hemispheric destinations, including Canada and Mexico, had to begin presenting passports."

"The new rules are part of the post-9-11 process to heighten security at U.S. ports of entry. Unfortunately, the State Department bureau responsible for issuing passports didn't seem to get the memo."

"Despite Chertoff declaring earlier this year that the WHTI program was proceeding "flawlessly," it seems obvious that the Homeland Security Department's bureaucracy is not ready to deal with the task of providing passports for all U.S. citizens traveling abroad."

"While we're glad officials at least have recognized the need to delay the tighter regulations, we wonder just how long it will take to fully prepare. Surely if the current dilemma for air travelers is not resolved by September, full implementation of the program anytime soon is in question."

"Suspension of new requirements for entering the United States by air is good news for communities located along the northern border."

"On Friday, the Bush Administration temporarily lifted a requirement that U.S. passports be used for citizens flying to and from Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda. The suspension resulted from a massive number of applications for passports that overwhelmed processing centers since the rule took effect this year."

"It's most unfortunate that the long-heralded open border between Canada and the United States is now imperiled. Times certainly have changed and terrorism concerns now have become paramount...But given these concerns, legitimate or not, the fact is that American politicians felt that they had to allay fears about security, so they approved the measure that many now believe will be causing all kinds of problems in border crossings. There are numerous proposals under consideration for land crossings of the Canadian border but Congress has not provided the mandates or the funds to develop an effective program that would avoid the seemingly enormous logistics problems alternatives to passports would present."

"There is still hope of significant changes to the maligned and controversial Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security was hoping to have strict border measures in place by the beginning of 2008 requiring all people entering the United States to have a valid passport. But developments last week indicate that may be increasingly difficult. There is also an indication that an alternative to the passport may be a viable option, despite this idea's having been previously shunned by Homeland Security officials in Washington. For these developments, politicians on both sides of the border deserve credit."

"Homeland Security would not only require Canadian visitors to the U.S. to have passports, it would require Americans returning home from Canada to have them, too. Unfortunately, only about 25 per cent of Americans have passports."

"For Canadians, the issue appears to be cost and inconvenience, although that is largely an imagined problem; a passport costs about $100 and is good for five years, while a Manitoba driver's licence, without all the high-tech add-ons that border crossings would require, costs about $40 and must be renewed annually."

"Democrat Higgins wants to scrap the stupid business of requiring travelers to and from Canada to show passports, or something like them, soon after New Year's Day. Surprisingly, Higgins is the only one in Congress who has the sense to plainly demand it be killed outright."

"With as little as eight months left before its deadline for implementation, all the government has accomplished has been to scare and confuse would-be travelers and depress business on both sides of the Niagara River."

"It is widely understood that Western New York's emerging economy rests on the smart functioning of the U.S.-Canada border, with tourism and goods from Canadian commerce being the two fastest-growing sectors of our regional economy. It is therefore imperative that federal border polices take into account that the Buffalo Niagara economy is closely intertwined with our neighbors across the river."

"Unfortunately, the Department of Homeland Security has again chosen to thicken the Northern border rather than advance smart policies that reduce congestion and facilitate low-risk travel."

"The apparent death of a promising plan to ease traffic over the U.S.-Canadian Peace Bridge has the Bush administration's fingerprints all over it — a whorl of paranoia, a couple of loops of incompetence and more than one arch that disrespects Canada's bill of rights as much as it does our own. Fingerprints, it turns out, were the deal-breaker for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security after two years of talks with the Canadian government over a shared border management plan that would have included a new inspections area on the Ontario side of a rebuilt Peace Bridge."

"My first trip to a foreign country was a short ride in my uncle's fishing boat, across Lake Metigoshe to Canada - where the flag at the bait-and-beer store was definitely not Old Glory and the proprietor kept saying "eh" at the end of sentences."

"I'm still a "borderite," but let me tell you, the trip isn't as easy as it was then, and it's not getting easier."

"That's something we ought to think about before we impose even more Draconian measures on the 5,500 miles often called the longest peaceful border in the world."

"Children aged 15 or younger with parental consent will be allowed to cross the borders at land and sea entry points with certified copies of their birth certificates rather than passports."

"We applaud the change, because it would have been a hardship on many families in the greater Detroit area. A youth hockey team playing a tournament in Canada, for example, might not have had all its members able to make the trip."

"We also urge federal officials to consider a proposal by Michigan and Canadian officials that travelers be able to use drivers licenses rather than passports to cross the border."

"While it's hard to find a U.S. citizen who doesn't support tighter security, there's a danger it may come at the expense of border communities whose economies depend on vigorous and efficient cross-border trade and travel. If crossing the border becomes too inconvenient, trade, and the jobs that support it, will suffer."

"On the border, Harper is right. Canada and the U.S. do $680 billion worth of trade annually across a border that 100 million people cross. We also are the biggest U.S. source of energy, worth $65 billion a year. And tight allies. Does it make sense that we erect barriers the Europeans have dismantled? That will just hurt people in both countries."

"The problem is that most Canadians and Americans do not own valid passports. A 2005 Conference Board of Canada survey indicates that only 34% of adult U.S. residents and 41% of adult Canadian residents hold a passport. The same study estimated that U.S. residents would make 12.3% fewer visits to Canada in 2008, mostly due to a reduction in same-day visits created by the passport requirement. This would result in an estimated net loss of $905-million in travel-related receipts to the Canadian economy. A different study commissioned by the Ontario Ministry of Tourism estimates the lost receipts for Ontario alone at $652-million in 2008 (3.2 million fewer U.S. visits), or a net loss of 6,500 jobs."

"It's worth recalling that the September 11 terrorists all arrived in the U.S. by airplane, and via legal means. Prevailing against Islamic terrorists requires public support, and the government shouldn't endanger that support with needless costs and hassles."

"[WHTI] may or may not deter terrorists, but it will certainly mean more inconvenience for law-abiding Americans with no guarantee that it will be worth the effort."