Passport requirement delayed 18 months

Ken Johnston

“Hold off getting your passport,” said Jerry Fisher of Morson Tuesday.
The official implementation date of requiring both US and Canadian citizens to have a valid passport to enter into the United States has been delayed to June 1, 2009. That is 18 months later than the original date.
Fisher who has been actively working through the Northwestern Ontario Tourism Association (NWOTA) to prevent what could be very damaging to his industry. Teamed up with Kenora District Camp Owners, Northwestern Ontario Associated Chambers of Commerce, Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association and the Northern Ontario Development Network, Fisher and NWOTA have been actively lobbying the US government to change its plans for the mandatory passport.
“I think this is a hell of a step (in the right direction),” said Fisher Tuesday. “They are finally acknowledging that there will be tremendous impact on both sides of the border.”
Fisher said another similar project has been proposed in the US called Real I.D. He noted that the US government is working on implementing a Real I.D. or national I.D. card for Americans in May of 2008, just five months after the passport plan was set to come into affect. “The right hand doesn’t know what the left is doing,” commented Fisher. He said that the efforts of the above groups as well as a group in the US called the Best Coalition have realized this duplication and have been encouraging the US to look at adding the required information from a passport be included on the Real I.D. cards.
At the same time Ontario government officials such as Minister of Tourism Jim Bradley have come out saying the delay in implementation is a good move. Bradley confirmed last week that his government is working on developing a more secure, high-tech driver’s license that could be used instead of a passport.
Fisher noted that the delay will help both the Real I.D. and driver’s license plans immensely. “The technology is not quite there and this delay will help get it there.”
He also added that the state of Michigan has come out with a plan to fund a pilot project between it and Ontario to prove the program can work.
Fisher is very optimistic that things will be resolved and that people will not have to go and get a passport. He noted that the efforts of this area’s groups as well as many other border communities that have similar situations where the communities are so intertwined (i.e. hockey programs here), have helped drive this issue to the front burner.
Fisher and the other groups will be travelling to Washington, D.C. this June for the second time in less than a year to meet with officials there and raise awareness about the economic impacts for both countries. “We saw more than 200 senators in February and got our message out.”
Fisher noted that many US senators were not aware of the impact the requirement for a passport could have on their constituencies. “In Minnesota alone there are 106,000 jobs generated by Canadian visitors there.”
Thunder Bay-Rainy River MP Ken Boshcoff said that he gives the members of NWOTA and other area groups a lot of credit for raising the importance of the issue. He said he has served a supportive role for them. He is planning to speak to parliament next week on the issue and is hopeful that the concerns of border areas will be addressed by the government.