Passports To Canada: Aid to Security or Menace to Travel?

Will new legislature adopted by the Canadian and U.S. governments benefit national well-being?

Story by Louis Smith

Photos by Evan McGough

"The passport law might be a good thing. I feel safer knowing what is coming and going across the border," says Theresa Ero.

Ero has been crossing the border at least twice a year for the last twenty years to visit her dentist. The Champlain, New York resident, who doesn’t already have a passport, said that she would eventually get one; she needs one to keep seeing her dentist.

The proposed law itself reads, "Citizens of both Canada and the United States will be required to present a valid passport or other designated document when entering the United States by any means, including by land, sea and air."

"If you know you’re traveling in the next six months, get it [your passport] now."

And if you thought getting your passport was a task in itself, think of it in a few months time when good old 2008 rolls around. Then everyone will be required to have one, and there will be no exceptions. The crunch to get a passport will be on. 

"Please do not wait," warns AAA Northway Manager Cathy Forget. "If you know you're traveling in the next six months, get it now. Don’t wait!"

Forget, who was very adamant about being prompt, says wait-time for getting passports could be anywhere from three to six months.

Apparently, the law will help cut down fraud with forms of identification, such as, travel papers and/or birth certificates, as well as help keeping out unwanted folks who could be a threat to national security.

But how will this effect travel through areas that directly border Canada - for example, Plattsburgh or Northern Vermont? Citizens of both often travel back and forth to satisfy needs; such as, gambling, eating, shopping and even watching a hockey game.

"We [at AAA] hope that there is some kind of effort made by the government to not make this law a financial burden," Forget says.

She adds that once this law passes, if people don’t have a passport and they plan to vacation north of the border, they will need to acquire one. And in order to do that, they would need to pay a premium so that the passport can be rushed in time. Promoting travel, one of AAA's goals, would become more difficult once this law is passed if people aren’t well informed. Even though they support this law, employees at AAA hope that it won’t be a problem for anyone.

Forget, as a representative of AAA, states that the organization's top concern is the effect on local travel. Sue Matton, vice president of economic development at the Plattsburgh Chamber of Commerce, also shares this worry.

"The concern is that not everyone has a passport."

"The casual traveler is who we are most concerned about. It is a question of how fast the state can issue these passports. It was a real mess when the air law was passed in January 2007," Matton says, refering to wait times.

The current law requires any citizen preparing to travel by air to have a valid passport. According to estimates, only twenty percent of American civilians have a passport, roughly 60 million. Can you imagine when the land bill is passed?

"The land (bill) will hit us, the concern is that not everyone has a passport," Matton says. "There is a pilot program that has been proposed that will upgrade a driver's license so that they won’t need to get a passport."

The proposed pilot program would upgrade a driver’s license to an RFID-chipped license. This program has been initiated in the state of Washington, where U.S-Canadian trade-based traffic is frequent. 

 "This pilot project is a way to boost security at our border without hampering trade and tourism," said Washington Governor Chris Gregoire, in a press statement released earlier this year. "Our effort to keep our border crossing moving is particularly important with the upcoming 2009 World Police and Fire Fighter Games and the 2010 Winter Olympics and Paralympics in British Columbia."

But like the title of this program states, it's only a pilot and hasn’t been widely publicized. The odds of this policy being practiced are slim to none, for it is only in effect in Washington, Matton says. And most people don’t even know that there is a program that advocates such things, because it hasn’t had much promotion.

There is already much speculation as to whether this passport law will really be passed by, or on, the proposed date of January 2008. The initial deadline for the bill was slated for 2006. Then, it was bumped to 2007 and finally early 2008.
           
"We here at Champlain have seen an increase in travel during the summer," Matton reports. "Most have seen a decrease. There is a ton of publicity in Montreal. The government has made attempts to inform people about when things do start."

How do you feel about the new passport law?