(Canadian Press)
Canadians would
eventually be allowed to bring up to $2,000 worth of goods duty-free from the United States if the government adopts the recommendations of a Senate committee.
The increased exemption, along with a suggestion that the federal government expropriate property near the Windsor-Detroit border in the interest of national
security, are contained in a Senate report to be released Wednesday. Parts of the report were made available in advance.
Senators recommended a sweeping "change of culture" to the way the
Canada-U.S. border is protected to keep terrorists at bay while insuring against a shutdown along the 49th parallel that could cripple the economy.
Border backups after the Sept. 11 airliner assaults
brought economic activity to a near standstill. Over a billion dollars in trade flows across the border every day. Almost 90 per cent of Canada's exports head to the United States. Any future terrorist
attack along the border would be catastrophic, the Senate Committee on National Security and Defence says in its report.
"Serious damage to major land border crossings between Canada and the
United States would have a profound impact on the Canadian economy, over and beyond the physical casualties such an incident would be likely to produce," the senators wrote.
Customs officers who
testified before the committee also convinced senators that they should be armed.Border authorities are currently instructed to call the RCMP or local police if they run into a threat. That help was often
terrifyingly slow in coming, the committee heard.
"The committee has reluctantly come to the conclusion that if the federal government is not willing or able to provide a constant police presence
at Canada's border crossings, current border inspectors must be given the option of carrying firearms," the report says.
Canadians are currently allowed to import up to $750 in goods from the
United States if they have been outside of the country for at least a week.
By almost tripling that amount in five years, the committee suggests customs officers could devote more of their energies to
assessing and repelling security threats, the Senate committee said.
"Canada needs a system within which personnel on the crossings are border officers first and clerks second -- the reverse of
the current situation."
"Raising personal exemptions for travellers will help border officers better direct their attention to border security rather than revenue collection."
Authorities on both sides of the border have long feared a terrorist strike on the Ambassador Bridge, which connects Windsor, Ont. and Detroit. More trade flows over that bridge every year than the total
trade between Japan and the United States.
Canada and the United States have promised to build a second crossing by 2013, but the threat to the span warrants extraordinary action, the committee said.
Both sides need to move faster on a secure new trade corridor, they said. If necessary, legislation should be introduced to allow the federal government to expropriate property in Windsor to speed up
construction "in the interests of national security." |
