Stakeholder Update on the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative

On Wednesday, May 16th, the Tourism Industry Association of Canada’s President and CEO, Randy Williams, and Vice-president, Chris Jones, attended the Government of Canada’s Stakeholder Update on the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative.

During this meeting, representatives from Passport Canada reported on the agency’s experience surrounding the implementation of the passport rule for the air mode. They acknowledged that their forecast of an 8% increase in demand fell substantially short of the actual 21% in passport demands. They also conceded that the traditional forecasting models are no longer relevant. They attributed this overwhelming demand to the frenzy of media coverage on WHTI requirements and the confusion among the public, which lead a large number of people to apply for a passport “just in case”. Passport Canada anticipates the implementation of the land and sea rule will have a much greater impact than WHTI Air did, since 12% of cross-border travel is by air, while 88% is by land and sea.

In 2006-2007, the Agency issued 3.6 million passports to Canadian travellers, consequently raising the passport ownership rate from 40% to 46%. At the moment, they are experiencing a backlog or ‘inventory” of 200,000 passport applications due to the surge in demand. Furthermore, with 15-20% of the applications arriving by mail and 85% of them being walked-in by the applicant, the processing standards can no longer be respected. While the mail-in service standard is usually 20 days for processing, the actual service period has now reached 10 weeks. The in-person service on the other hand reached 3 weeks at one point, but has now returned to its normal standard of 10 days.

According to Passport Canada, the United States Passport Office is facing similar increases, backlogs and service delays – passport production time now averages 10-12 weeks in the U.S. Information published by the U.S. Department of State indicates that for the first seven months (October through April) of the 2007 fiscal year, the Department issued 8.6 million passports, seeing their passport ownership rate rise from 25% to 29%. This figure, however, remains under one third of the population and is problematic for the Canadian tourism sector, which is highly dependant on U.S. visitation. When asked the question “Are there any specific events or issues that you have heard about that makes you less inclined to travel to Toronto, Niagara Falls or other places in Ontario?” by Statistics Canada, American visitors indicated that passport requirements (40%) and difficulty/delays at the border (12%) were the main issues that deterred them from the region.

In terms of improving passport renewal times, the Government of Canada has been musing about moving to a faster renewal process; however, no firm commitments have been made in this regard. On the question of the validity of the passport, which currently expires after five years, the government concedes that the U.S. and Britain have a ten-year lifespan to their passports, but suggests that there are intrinsic security benefits to having a five year duration for the Canadian passport.

Roy Norton, Minister (Congressional, Public and Intergovernmental Relations) at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, said most American legislators are willing to talk about the implementation issues, but not about the principles of the WHTI. He believes that few American Congressmen would kill or substantially neuter the WHTI. A couple of notable exceptions do exist. Congresswoman Louise Slaughter has sponsored a bill, the Protecting American Commerce and Travel Act (PACT Act), which has now attracted 39 bipartisan signatures. Senators Levin, Clinton and Leahy have also been active in seeking to amend the WHTI.

Common to most of these legislative proposals, the DHS would be required to enact the following measures:

• Perform a Cost-Benefit Analysis before the WHTI is implemented
• Trial the new PASS card RFID and vicinity reader technology for a period of time
• Allow for a six month grace period for people arriving at the border with incorrect documentation
• Mount a significant public consultation and outreach program with the U.S. public before final WHTI implementation

In general, the Canadian Embassy has tended to find allies among the Congressional representatives from within the Northern Border Caucus and from states which Canadians frequent in large numbers.

It is Norton’s view that the eventual Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on the Land and Sea implementations will allow for alternative documents to the passport. However, he stressed that the Final Rule for Land and Sea must be published in November 2007, at the latest, if they are to meet the Jan 1, 2008 implementation date. TIAC will comment on the NPRM once it is issued.

Norton believes that U.S. DHS Secretary Chertoff is quite favourable to the Washington State – British Columbia pilot on an enhanced drivers licence (EDL). This would be a voluntary option for drivers to exercise at the time of renewal and would cost an additional $15. The DHS is currently examining how the authentication of citizenship and the determination of identification would be handled under the pilot scheme.  Individuals would have to give their consent to have their personal information vetted by DHS. Applicants would also be required to produce their birth certificate and to go through a qualifying interview. Finally it is believed that the enhanced driver’s license would have to be machine readable and contain an RFID chip on it.

At the end of the day, both Canada Border Services Agency and Foreign Affairs believe that a critical mass of U.S. states must buy into the EDL concept for it to be viable.

On that point, a representative from the Ontario government indicated that the Ministry of Transportation will try for an EDL roll-out by December of 2007.

At the end of the session, TIAC participated in a break out session on the subject of how to improve communication on the WHTI and to advise travellers of what documents will be required. Among the suggestions made during this session were:

• That Canadian CBSA and U.S. CBP officers be extensively and thoroughly briefed on a consistent set of rules about which documents will be accepted under WHTI. There is currently a perception out there of idiosyncratic interpretations by officers of both countries;
• That Canada should develop and market brochures extolling the advantages of acquiring a passport or enrolling in NEXUS;
• That we need, once the final rule is passed, a generic one-pager with both governments’ logos on it that spells out what will be admissible documents. This should be disseminated very widely;
• That both Canada Post and the US Postal Service should be vehicles for conveying the new rules given their credibility and pervasiveness in both countries;
• That Canadian private sector businesses engage in direct mail and email blitzes alerting their memberships, customers/clients to the impending new documentation requirements;
• That Meeting Planners be a special focus for briefing given the numbers of folks they interact with during conventions and trade shows; and
• That a proactive media strategy be adopted by the Government of Canada in the last quarter of 2007 aimed at both print and electronic media outlets to help get our message out.

For more information, please contact TIAC Vice President of Public Policy Chris Jones at 613.238.7557.