Close X
Monday, December 2, 2024
ADVT 
National

Canadian Border Bill Passes U.S. Congress: Enables Long-Awaited Reforms

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 10 Dec, 2016 01:34 PM
    WASHINGTON — A bill with potentially sweeping consequences for the Canada-U.S. border has just been adopted by the American Congress, allowing new projects aimed at speeding up travel through the international boundary.
     
    The so-called preclearance bill has now been adopted by both U.S. legislative chambers after being passed by the Senate overnight Saturday and is now expected to become law with President Barack Obama's signature.
     
    Officials in both countries celebrated the news. The project has involved both U.S. political parties and the Harper and Trudeau governments, yet some participants had begun worrying it might stall from inertia.
     
    It was finally taken up in the last moments of the current Congress, passed first by the House of Representatives and then the Senate this week as lawmakers prepared to dissolve and reconvene a new post-election legislature after the holidays.
     
    "Preclearance is a win-win for enhanced security and prosperity on both sides of the border," Canada's ambassador to the U.S., David MacNaughton, tweeted Saturday.
     
    The Canadian government had been lobbying lawmakers to make it a priority, and pass the legislation required to implement different agreements signed with the Obama administration by Canada's Conservative and Liberal governments.
     
    The latest agreement was announced earlier this year during a news conference in the White House Rose Garden by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and President Obama, who agreed to sites for preclearance experiments.
     
    The pilot projects will take place at Montreal's train station and on Western Canada's Rocky Mountaineer train line.
     
     
    The projects will establish U.S. customs offices on the Canadian side of the border allowing travellers, in theory, to get screened more quickly, zip through the actual border, and ease the logjams that slow travel and commerce.
     
    It's part of broader efforts to speed up movement, slowed by security measures after the 9-11 attacks, without sacrificing safety.
     
    Preclearance will feel familiar to many Canadians.
     
    That's because 12 million passengers already use it at Canadian airports, eight of which have U.S. customs facilities. The latest Trudeau-Obama deal extended that to two more airports: Toronto's Billy Bishop and Quebec City's Jean Lesage.
     
    The more significant change is that the new agreements allow the system to be extended to every mode of transportation: first trains, then buses, and potentially someday even car travel, might involve clearing the border early.
     
    The agreements also allow American customs agents to carry weapons within Canada, question people, and detain, but not arrest, them. The legislation that passed Saturday also allows agents accused of crimes at work to be prosecuted in the U.S.
     
    A senator who sponsored the bill hailed its adoption.
     
    "This agreement has long been a priority for Vermonters," said Democrat Patrick Leahy. 
     
    "It would make it possible to restore Amtrak service between Vermont and Quebec in the future... Now, at last, we can confidently move to the next stages of getting passenger service to Montreal up and running.
     
    "Many of us can't wait to hear those first whistles blow."
     
     
    It passed the House on Wednesday. In that chamber, New York Republican Elise Stefanik called it great news for Canada-U.S. relations.
     
    "Canada is more than just a bordering nation. They are our neighbours, our friends and our largest trading partner," she said. "Plattsburgh, a city in my district, has even branded itself as Montreal's U.S. suburb."

    MORE National ARTICLES

    Proposed Changes To Statcan Designed To End Political Interference: Navdeep Bains

    Proposed Changes To Statcan Designed To End Political Interference: Navdeep Bains
    OTTAWA — The federal Liberals are moving on their promise to build a political firewall around Statistics Canada, but the fine print of the proposed legislative changes would maintain the government's power to tell the agency how to do its job. 

    Proposed Changes To Statcan Designed To End Political Interference: Navdeep Bains

    Trial Hears Sect Followers Could Foresee Girls Moved To U.S. For Sexual Purpose

    Trial Hears Sect Followers Could Foresee Girls Moved To U.S. For Sexual Purpose
    Peter Wilson delivered closing arguments at the B.C. Supreme Court trial for Brandon Blackmore, Gail Blackmore and James Oler, who are charged with removing girls from Canada for a sexual purpose.

    Trial Hears Sect Followers Could Foresee Girls Moved To U.S. For Sexual Purpose

    Viola Desmond Chosen As First Canadian Woman To Grace Banknote's Face

    Viola Desmond Chosen As First Canadian Woman To Grace Banknote's Face
    Desmond will grace the front of the $10 bill when the next series goes into circulation in 2018, Finance Minister Bill Morneau told a news conference Thursday at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Que.

    Viola Desmond Chosen As First Canadian Woman To Grace Banknote's Face

    Flower Power: Group Hands Blooms To Welcome Women In Hijabs At Transit Stop

    Flower Power: Group Hands Blooms To Welcome Women In Hijabs At Transit Stop
    Women wearing hijabs received flowers Wednesday as they waited at an Edmonton light-rail transit station where two Muslim women were targeted in what police say could be a hate crime.

    Flower Power: Group Hands Blooms To Welcome Women In Hijabs At Transit Stop

    Man Robs Nobleton, Ont., Drug Store Wearing Santa Hat And White Beard: Police

    Man Robs Nobleton, Ont., Drug Store Wearing Santa Hat And White Beard: Police
    York regional police say a man entered the drug store on Wednesday afternoon and went to the prescriptions counter.

    Man Robs Nobleton, Ont., Drug Store Wearing Santa Hat And White Beard: Police

    U.S. VP Biden visits Ottawa under a shroud and secrecy and speculation

    U.S. VP Biden visits Ottawa under a shroud and secrecy and speculation
    OTTAWA — U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden is to arrive in Ottawa later today on a visit shrouded in secrecy and speculation.

    U.S. VP Biden visits Ottawa under a shroud and secrecy and speculation