Canadian RV friends... U.S. wants to impose border-crossing fee for Canadians
Check out this story, I am sure it is a trial balloon,
Traveler's tax the beginning of a border wall?
U.S. wants to impose border-crossing fee for Canadians
Erin Anderssen
Globe and Mail
Mon, 22 Apr 2013 23:59 CDT
The United States is exploring how to save money on security by charging a toll to Canadians crossing the border by ground - a possible new traveller's tax that immediately raised fierce opposition from political and business leaders in both countries.
The idea of a "crossing fee" was revealed in a recent budget request by the Department of Homeland Security, which was seeking funds to study the cost of collecting a new toll for people walking and driving into the United States from the north and south.
In addition to the economic cost of reducing trade and cross-border shopping between Canada and the United States, Canadian Chamber of Commerce President Perrin Beatty argued that piling a revenue-raising fee on cross-border shoppers, sports fans, even the peewee hockey team heading south for a tournament would diminish a sense of "North American community."
"Building the walls higher and making the borders stickier and thicker is exactly the wrong way to go," he said, noting that the Chamber of Commerce is arranging discussions on the subject this week with its American counterparts. "Anything that drives up costs discourages traffic."
According to Foreign Affairs, Canadians spend $21-billion each year in the United States. "Any fee on travellers crossing the Canada-US border would be bad for travellers and bad for the economy," said department spokesperson Emma Welford. "Canadian officials will vigorously lobby against this proposal."
While the proposal is only a study at this point, the lobby group against a new "crossing fee" may have a hard case to make - in the face of security concerns, a shrinking budget and seemingly irrepressible Canadian cross-border bargain-hunters.
The United States is desperately trying to find cost-effective ways to relieve a crippling debt. Whether or not an additional fee would reduce risks at the border, it's being linked by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to improving security, an especially significant public issue, in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings. In a written statement about the budget, Ms. Napolitano stressed the need to find new revenue to cover increasing costs at a border, which, she said, processes 350 million travellers each year. "As the complexity of our operations continue to expand the gap between fee collections and the operations they support is growing, and the number of workforce hours [that] fees support decreases each year."
The idea of a "crossing fee" was revealed in a recent budget request by the Department of Homeland Security, which was seeking funds to study the cost of collecting a new toll for people walking and driving into the United States from the north and south.
In addition to the economic cost of reducing trade and cross-border shopping between Canada and the United States, Canadian Chamber of Commerce President Perrin Beatty argued that piling a revenue-raising fee on cross-border shoppers, sports fans, even the peewee hockey team heading south for a tournament would diminish a sense of "North American community."
"Building the walls higher and making the borders stickier and thicker is exactly the wrong way to go," he said, noting that the Chamber of Commerce is arranging discussions on the subject this week with its American counterparts. "Anything that drives up costs discourages traffic."
According to Foreign Affairs, Canadians spend $21-billion each year in the United States. "Any fee on travellers crossing the Canada-US border would be bad for travellers and bad for the economy," said department spokesperson Emma Welford. "Canadian officials will vigorously lobby against this proposal."
While the proposal is only a study at this point, the lobby group against a new "crossing fee" may have a hard case to make - in the face of security concerns, a shrinking budget and seemingly irrepressible Canadian cross-border bargain-hunters.
The United States is desperately trying to find cost-effective ways to relieve a crippling debt. Whether or not an additional fee would reduce risks at the border, it's being linked by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to improving security, an especially significant public issue, in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings. In a written statement about the budget, Ms. Napolitano stressed the need to find new revenue to cover increasing costs at a border, which, she said, processes 350 million travellers each year. "As the complexity of our operations continue to expand the gap between fee collections and the operations they support is growing, and the number of workforce hours [that] fees support decreases each year."
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