Home Border Cooperation Key Border Speeches Deputy Prime Minister John Manley to the CAN-AM Border Trade Alliance

Deputy Prime Minister John Manley to the CAN-AM Border Trade Alliance

OTTAWA, Ontario
May 6, 2002

I would like to thank the Canada-United States Border Trade Alliance, and Jim Phillips in particular, for organizing this event. I am pleased to be speaking to you, the Can-Am BTA membership, because this is the pre-eminent group of Canadian and American border users, operators and partners that has sought to advance border modernization.

The dialogue we have with you and other key stakeholders - notably the provinces and business groups like the Alliance of Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, the Canadian Chamber, the Council of Chief Executives, to name only a few (and there are many given the vital importance of the border to both Canadian and American well-being) - this dialogue is extraordinarily valuable, and must continue.

In my remarks today, I would like to give you my own perspective on our border challenges, the role of the Smart Border process, our 'early harvest' accomplishments to date, and what I see as the way forward.

September 11 had immediate impacts on our shared border. Programs, such as CANPASS and NEXUS, were suspended. Border line-ups grew. Twelve-hour delays were common; 18 hour delays were not unheard of. By September 13th, the line-up from Sarnia into Port Huron stretched 25 km. The just-in-time delivery system so critical to many of our industries was put in jeopardy.

Commercial flows now appear to have reached their regular - substantial - levels. Canada's economic performance, and the confidence of Canadians are together rising rapidly - faster, in fact, than anyone predicted. The IMF and the OECD have both just published global economic outlooks which once again put Canada at the top of the G7 - just ahead of the US in the #2 spot. With these projections, we can rest assured that cross-border trade will continue to grow.

But we still need to do our work in order to ensure that this potential is fully tapped, and not set back by inefficiencies or security concerns at and around the border. It is clear that security remains, quite understandably, the chief preoccupation in the US; Canadians, too, want assurances that our country, our society, and our interests are protected.

There is no more fundamental a duty for a government than the protection of its citizens. Our national interest dictates that we ensure the security and safety of Canadians against terrorism. And to do that, we increased investments to our security and intelligence agencies by over $7 billion; we gave ourselves new legislative tools to combat those who would attack our values and way of life; and Canada's military contribution in Afghanistan and the ultimate sacrifice made by our military personnel there are a testament to Canada's unwavering commitment to this goal.

Canada, of course, is far from alone in this pursuit. A great many other countries have pursued similar measures; dozens have joined and offered support to the military coalition that is fighting terrorism. But none work so closely together, nor have their interests so tightly intertwined as do Canada and the United States.

From a border perspective, September 11 underscored the extent to which economic and national security are two sides of the same coin. As this group knows very well, it added increased importance to addressing the border challenges that were already with us. Most importantly, it forced both governments to address the border as a priority issue in a coordinated manner.

When President Bush and Prime Minister Chrétien tasked Governor Ridge and myself to coordinate work on these issues, we quickly determined that our objective should not be to get the border back to where it was on September 10. Rather, our aim was to help develop a smart border for the 21st century that could handle - in a secure and efficient manner - the impressive growth in cross-border traffic that will most certainly continue well into the future.

Canada and the US recognized the increased need to chart a shared agenda based on our mutual economic and national security objectives. This led to the Smart Border Declaration and its companion 30-point Action Plan, structured around 4 pillars. The Smart Border's basic tenet is that once we have the right security foundation in place, we can actually expedite the flow of goods and people across it.

As my colleague Elinor Caplan will likely reiterate later today, it is neither possible nor desirable to conduct a full search of all goods or people transiting between countries, given the levels of traffic across the border. Intelligence, information sharing and technologies are the tools that will allow us to do this. Through enhanced risk management approaches, I -- as well as many others such as Homeland Security Director Ridge and US Customs Commissioner Bonner -- believe we can enhance facilitation of low-risk traffic and dedicate our resources where they are needed most - namely on that tiny percentage of traffic which is high risk.

Tom Ridge and I frequently discuss progress to ensure continued momentum on the 30-point Action Plan. I have seen unprecedented and sustained engagement from the White House and my Cabinet colleagues have found the same throughout the Administration. Director Ridge and I hope to meet again soon to measure the progress that our two administrations are making with respect to each of the 30 action plan items.

Allow me to review the already considerable progress that we've made.

NEXUS has re-opened at Sarnia-Port Huron and the program will be expanded to three high volume crossings in BC by June. A recent study presented here by Jim Phillips has estimated that with a 20% take-up rate you can reduce border crossing time for car traffic by close to 50%. We have reached agreement that NEXUS will be introduced at all high-volume ports of entry along the border and will be announcing roll-out dates shortly. In fact, we think NEXUS is such a great program, we can't wait for it to get off the ground with the air NEXUS program.

On the commercial side, you are already familiar with our Customs Self-Assessment program which improves security and cuts back on the amount of information exchange that has to take place at the border. But the benefits of the program for companies will be greatly enhanced when it is harmonized on both sides of the border - when the security requirements, the number of data elements that need to be provided - are similar. The US's new Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-T PAT) program, recently announced by Director Ridge and the US Customs Service, could be part of this package. Once again, we hope to be able to make a detailed announcement on a joint program soon.

We have also agreed to work together and coordinate our security targeting at ports with Canadian customs officials stationed at Newark and Tacoma-Seattle, and US customs officials at Halifax, Montreal and Vancouver. Our ultimate objective here is to do one joint security check at the initial port of entry and only do a customs post-clearance at the final point of destination. This means that once containers arriving in Halifax have been cleared for security purposes, they can be put on a rail car and go all the way through to Chicago without having to be cleared for customs at the border.

These changes, and others like them, will all make a significant contribution to the efficiency of our border operations. If, however, we are to truly benefit from this coordinated approach, it is imperative that we make the kind of strategic investments in our border infrastructure that will help maximize those gains.

That is why in the December 2001 Budget, the Government committed $600 million for infrastructure at our key border crossings. Right now, some 70% of Canada-US cross-border truck traffic goes through just six crossing points. We need to make the right investments that will lead to efficiency improvements in the near term - from dedicated lanes to new technology that will expedite traffic across the border.

But even as we make investments to improve the efficiency of our existing infrastructure, we cannot lose sight of the need to increase our infrastructure capacity for the future, to support our fast growing trade relationship with the US. Over the past decade, trade with the US has more than doubled and daily commercial vehicle traffic has gone from 20,000 in 1991 to 37,000 in 2000. This pressure is only going to grow.

The key to our success will be to keep a focus on the border in an integrated way. By this, we need to ensure that all the pieces - be they infrastructure improvements, procedural changes or new technologies - complement and reinforce one another. Innovative thinking and the analysis derived from border modeling tools, such as those presented here at the CanAm BTA, are important for identifying the appropriate combination of these pieces that are required at our key crossings. And we need the involvement of communities working together to develop coherent solutions.

I have spoken of the progress we have made in facilitating low-risk traffic, and of our intentions for improving infrastructure. Let me also say a few things about the gains we are making in dealing with shared threats.

Most of you have probably seen the recent report on Canada's immigration and refugee system done by 60 Minutes.

Few people realize - and a few more want to ignore - that 72% of Canada's refugee claimants so far this year actually crossed the border from the United States. Last year, over 14,000 claimants came to Canada through the US - that's 60% of our total number of refugee claimants, many of whom had improper or no documentation to attest to their identity or nationality. This situation undermines the integrity of our refugee protection system.

We are currently working with the U.S. on an agreement - the "Safe Third" agreement - that, once ratified and implemented, will allow both countries to better manage the flow of individuals seeking to access their respective refugee asylum systems.

We are also coordinating visa policies. The United States has recently imposed visas on Argentinian travellers who posed a concern for Canada. These important measures will allow both countries to enhance our respective security, while continuing to offer protection to individuals genuinely in need of protection.

Domestically, the new Immigration and Refugee Protection Act will provide more tools to ensure that security threats do not gain access to, or stay in Canada by strengthening our ability to arrest criminals and security threats as well as speeding up removals.

The Smart Border Action Plan and the new Border Infrastructure Fund are important steps towards building a smart border for the 21st century. But, standing alone, they are not enough. Getting the border right means we cannot, and will not, stop here. The need for government's to maintain momentum is clear and we will need your help to keep us on track.

So what is the way forward? We will need to continue our work to ensure the gains we have made are fully implemented. But beyond that, I would also like to consider how we might build on the progress made in the 30-point Action Plan.

Let me reiterate that my fundamental objective continues to be the security and prosperity of Canadians. I believe that the Smart Border Action plan significantly enhances the national and economic security of Canadians. The United States and our shared border will continue to play a role in our efforts to secure the long-term prosperity and security of Canadians. The challenge is to realize the full potential of our partnership and to ensure that our border serves to facilitate, not frustrate, our objectives.

I commend the CANAM BTA membership and private sector for joining us in forging the future and, indeed, helping to show the way forward. The solid cross-border relationships which your organization exemplifies gives me confidence that together we'll achieve our common objective of creating a truly smart border that serves both Canadian and American interests.

Thank you.