Drunk driver border law said to hurt tourism

Ken Johnston
editorial@RainyRiverRecord.com

Members of the Northwestern Ontario Tourism Association (NWOTA) met in Emo Friday and topping the agenda was the issue of people with Impaired Driving convictions facing difficulty in entering Canada.

NWOTA claims there has been stepped up enforcement at the border in the past year resulting in many American visitors having problems getting into Canada to vacation. NWOTA conducted a survey of its member tourist operations. Of the 83 resorts that were sent surveys some 22 responded. They reported 39 incidents at the border and of those 26 were impaired driving issues.

Dennis Pella, regional manager for Immigration Canada, told NWOTA members that there had not been any stepped up enforcement prior to September 11, 2001 on this issue at any of the crossings from Rainy River to Pigeon River.

After that time there has been heightened security at the border. Pella noted that Immigration officers only do checks on individuals after it has been recommended at a primary inspection which is conducted by a customs officer. Pella noted that customs officers use a set of routine questions, none of which specifically ask about impaired driving convictions. He further noted that if a customs officer suspects the person should be checked out more thoroughly then he or she is put through a secondary inspection at which time their drivers license or birth certificate will be run through a computer.

Since criminal code convictions on a person’s record merit denial of entry in many cases that is what happens. However Pella said that there are three types of special entries that can be granted. Often in the case of an impaired driving conviction the individual can fill out a form and pay $200 and then if the immigration officer approves is granted admission for a set period of time, up to 30 days.

One of the biggest complaints about that process from NWOTA is that it appears to be a fine or a cash grab. Pella said that it is a processing fee for the paperwork.

Another complaint is that people who have had clean records other than the impaired conviction some 20 years ago are having to face this at the border.

However Pella said that immigration officers take that into account when assessing when the special admission is to be granted or denied. He also said that once the new immigration act is implemented, which he thinks will be next summer, immigration will likely not worry about convictions 10 years or older. Pella said that in bill C11 there is at the very least a 10 year clause. NWOTA members said that they would like to see that dropped to 5 years and Pella encouraged them to lobby local Member of Parliament Bob Nault to get it changed.

Until that time Pella said, “We can not instruct staff to ignore old offenses. It (DWI) is a criminal offense in federal legislation.” In many neighbouring states it is a mis-demeanor or lesser crime.

Another problem identified by NWOTA was the fact that immigration officers are the only ones who can process the special entries to Canada and that they tend to work Mon-Friday. NWOTA President Tom Pearson said that most guests come from Saturday to Saturday and hence if they have a problem at the border have no one there to assess their situation and are denied entry.

Pella said that if there is sufficient demand for an officer to be on duty at a different time they would look at it.

However he said that camp owners would be wise to tell their customers that think they may have a problem due to a past conviction to notify immigration of their intended entry date into Canada and they can better accommodate them. He did however note that they can not be specially cleared in any way but in person.

NWOTA’s survey estimates that it will cost area resorts that responded to their survey about $127,674 in lost business as many of those who had trouble said they will never come back. Across the region they estimate that figure at about $4.4 million and across Ontario to $9.4 million.

While it looked like tourists were being targeted, Pella noted that on any given day the vast majority of people crossing the border are anglers. “That gives them the highest chance of getting caught.”

NWOTA members said that they wish that Immigration Canada had let them know ahead of time of the stepped up enforcement. “It is better for us to be upfront with our guests than to be apologizing after the fact,” said one NWOTA member.”

Pella agreed to try and supply resorts with brochures later this year or early next year for them to send to their guests.