By sampay OTTAWA –
The Enterprise Council of Canada says it’s involved over the continued closure of the Nexus trusted-traveller program, which permits pre-screened vacationers expedited processing when getting into america and Canada.
CEO Goldy Hyder says it’s “deeply troubling” that the US authorities has not reopened 13 Nexus enrolment centres, in a letter to David Cohen, the American ambassador to Canada, obtained by The Canadian Press.
The 2 nations are in dispute over a long-standing request by the US Customs and Border Safety company that its brokers be afforded the identical authorized protections inside Nexus amenities in Canada that they presently have at ports of entry like airports and the Canada-US border .
Public Security Minister Marco Mendicino has cited the ideas of Canadian sovereignty in explaining why US customs officers cannot have the identical authorized protections at Nexus facilities that they do at airports and the border.
Hyder says in his letter to Cohen that he fears the dispute will damage companies whose workers don’t have already got a Nexus card and he strongly urges the ambassador to suggest reopening the enrolment centres.
His feedback come on the heels of Canada’s envoy to the US saying this system is being “held hostage” by unilateral American efforts to renegotiate the preclearance settlement between america and its northern neighbour.
“There’s an try and renegotiate the phrases of a 20-year-old program unilaterally and this system is being held hostage to that effort,” Kirsten Hillman instructed a symposium on the Canada-US border hosted final week by the Future Borders Coalition.
This report by The Canadian Press was first revealed Oct. 16, 2022.