Border delays likely to get worse
OTTAWA — Canadians who were promised a speedier crossing at the U.S. border could discover in the coming months that the lineups have only grown longer.
As the clock ticked down to a political showdown in Washington Friday, it appeared clear Canada will be side-swiped by massive budget cuts — known as sequestration — set to take effect.
On Thursday, leaders of Canada’s business community said this country should brace itself for significant cross-border delays.
Everyone — from exporters that need to quickly ship their products by truck, to tourists planning to drive or fly for a vacation getaway in the U.S. — will be affected.
Jayson Myers, president of Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, said his association expects the delays will be longest at the Canada-U.S. land border crossings. “What we’re hearing is that we could be facing four or five-hour delays at the border.”
The development comes after U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said her department will have to slash staffing — the equivalent, in hours, of 5,000 border patrol agents — as part of sequestration.
That will have “serious consequences to the flow of trade and travel at our nation’s ports of entry,” she warned.
“The lines over the next few weeks are going to lengthen in some dramatic ways in parts of the country.”
Napolitano said the delays will be felt at the CanadaU.S. border.
Those dire warnings have left businesses scrambling for more detail, and a Washington-based adviser to the Canadian manufacturers said on Thursday there are indications from U.S. customs officials that the impact might not be so dramatic.
The scenario threatens to erode the Beyond the Border deal, a 2011 agreement that Prime Minister Stephen Harper and U.S. President Barack Obama reached to create a “perimeter security” wall against terrorists while also easing congestion at the border.
Without an agreement by Friday, $85 billion in acrossthe-board cuts to the military and most government spending programs automatically kick in.