Travel fee to enter U.S.?
by Lucy Martin on February 17th, 2011
Here’s an item worth knowing about, as reported in a CBC article yesterday:
The budget U.S. President Barack Obama submitted to Congress on Monday proposes to slap a $5.50 fee on every visitor from Canada who travels to the U.S. by air or by sea.
The fee would not apply to visitors arriving in private vehicles.
Most cross-border traffic in this region comes by car, so maybe this is no big deal, in local terms. But check out some of the reader comments, like this one:
It’s not enough that I’m groped, molested, x-rayed and robbed by TSA agents in the US, now they think I should pay them more for being humiliated without warrant or cause? I think not. I won’t go there now, so the chance of going there and paying more for the experience is even more remote.Obama should be looking closely at the criminals employed by TSA and clean it up before asking anyone for an ‘inspection fee.’
Keep your country, Obama. Seal your borders and continue to treat all your own citizens and visitors like criminals on the internet, streets, subways and airports. I won’t participate.
Does it matter if Canadians feel welcome? Or should security and budget concerns trump all?
Tags: border issues, canada, proposed travel fee
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The border has changed a lot since I used to go for a haircut at a barbershop in Dundee. When I drove back through US Customs the guy would recognize me through the glass door, I’d point to my fresh haircut and he’d wave me on. When I was courting my wife in Huntingdon I got to know (casually) several of the customs agents on both sides and we’d chat every time I crossed. They’d always end the conversation with the obligatory “Do you have any firearms, tobacco or alcohol to declare?”.
Now they all carry sidearms and it feels like a checkpoint in Baghdad to cross the border. I know the ‘reasons’ for the change but I still think it is excessive and I can’t see that it is solving any of the problems that it is aimed at. I think there must be a better way.
It’s a ham handed approach which shows that the US government does not understand the region or the threat for that matter. But the charge has nothing to do with security it is just a slap in the face. We should be paying Canadian consumers to come down here, not charging them.
Freedom? Give me liberty or give me death?
Will there come a time when if you want freedom, you will need to move to Russia or China?
Are we but ships passing in the night?
Trust me. It won’t be long before there is a fee to leave and another fee to return to the good old US of A.
It’s all about money AND control.
If I’m not mistaken Canada charges $8.