Oh Canada

Posted: Friday, Jun 22, 2007 - 08:45:01 am PDT
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We will miss you

Remember when taking a vacation in a foreign - and yet English speaking - country was as easy as driving to Canada?

All it took was three hours in a car, driving up state Route 17 through Soap Lake, past Omak, and then to the border crossing in Oroville. You presented your driver's license to the kind Canadian customs agent, answered the usual questions about weapons, alcohol and tobacco, then drove on.

Since the terrorist attacks six years ago in New York, America tightened its scrutiny of people coming and going from our country. And it was for good reasons, but the approach to tightening the border between Canada and the United States remains a flawed process bogged down in bureaucratic blunders.

Yesterday, the deadline for when people re-entering America from Canada are required to have passports was shifted back to July 1, 2008. Six more months. This means Americans need passports to come home from Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean nations. Everyone needs a passport to go to any other country.

The delay is due to the backlog of processing passport applications. They have received so many first time applications there is a three-month backlog, which is impacting people's summer travel.

Yes, since people are facing the loss of their vacation reservations the federal government is going to delay the passport requirement.

It brings up the question of how worthwhile is the passport requirement?

Currently, Americans driving to Canada and back only need a driver's license and a birth certificate. It is understandable to require photo identification such as the driver's license, but why a birth certificate? There is nothing on a birth certificate to help a border agent establish identity. There's no picture of the person named in the document.

A passport has a picture, but why should we spend $97 and wait months to receive a passport to drive to and from Canada? What is wrong with the state issued driver's license?

A Washington state driver's license requires the same documentation to establish identity. It uses the same birth certificate to verify an applicant's identity. The information gathered is entered into a database for use by the state Department of Licensing and law enforcement. It is a tamper-proof, impossible to fake system with the information needed at the border being a computer search away.

There is some relief thanks to efforts by Gov. Chris Gregoire. She approved creation of an enhanced version of the state driver's license. It can be used in place of a passport. It costs $40 and people receiving them must pick them up from the licensing department, rather than receive them in the mail.

The card is being designed to meet federal requirements set by the REAL ID Act of 2005 for drivers' licenses to be used as identification when entering or exiting the country. The state agreed to establish a pilot program of enhanced driver's licenses. The new cards will feature an RFID chip, which allows electronic readers to scan the card.

News of the new program and cards was announced in March of 2006. But unfortunately they do not appear available yet. This leaves us waiting on the federal government to provide us passports by July 1, 2008, to continue traveling to and from Canada.

With the amount of business between British Columbia and Washington, and families split by the border, it would seem our state should act faster than the federal government to keep our travel and commercial freight shipments between countries flowing.

Waiting for the federal government to clear the backlog before the deadline sounds risky. If they fail to provide passports in a more efficient manner, it could damage our economy and strain cross-border family ties.

What is needed is for someone to step up, provide clear leadership and find a usable solution to avoid restricting travel and yet increase security at the same time.

It seems we have a solution in mind, but why is the state taking more than a year to implement enhanced licenses? It could help reduce the federal passport backlog by allowing Washington residents an alternative to obtain an alternative to the passport, and do it at half the cost.

Either way we are dependent on bureaucracies to provide the needed identification to visit or do business with our neighbors to the north.

Oh Canada, we will miss you.

-- Editorial board

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