Thank you, Mr. Rae. I'm equally happy to see you.
The thickening of the border is an issue that we've been deeply concerned about, really, since 9/11. You all know what happened and I won't review that--the fact that trucks that had taken eight to ten minutes to cross the border were taking 18 hours to cross the border. I'll tell you, that was a huge wake-up call to all of us, not just to those of us in Canada, because we ship so much across the border, but to the 39 states that consider Canada their most important market.
Ever since then, despite the smart borders initiative that was initiated by the former government, which contained many excellent elements to it--Mr. Manley and Mr. Ridge--and despite all the efforts since, this enormous apparatus called the Department of Homeland Security, which I'm told is larger than the entire public service of Canada, has developed a momentum of its own. It's a momentum where, I have to say—given that I attended two summit meetings involving the two Presidents and the Prime Minister, one at Montebello in 2007 and one in New Orleans in 2008 where this issue was squarely on the table—despite the strong assurances on the part of the President of the United States and strong efforts on the part of the President of Mexico and our Prime Minister to say, “Let's do something about it,” and the President in full view of those of us who are here saying to his homeland security secretary, “Let's get on with it,” the fact of the matter is that we are falling behind rather than going forward.
So in answer to your question, Mr. Rae, I think we have to push very, very hard. I know that Prime Minister Harper did so with President Obama. I think it's important that the two business communities continue to intensify their efforts. And it's not easy. We've been at this now for three or four years, really starting back in 2001-02, and often we run up against a brick wall with a lot of people, including congressional and Senate representatives who say, “We're on your side; we want to do it,” yet it doesn't happen.
Dealing with the inertia and dealing with it quickly, in our view, is crucial. This means taking infrastructure money on both sides of the border and improving the infrastructure access to border points. It means looking at the tunnel and the bridge, including a bridge that is privately owned—which, incidentally, greatly shocked the President of the United States, who couldn't believe that a bridge that was so important to our two countries was actually privately owned—but that we get on with the job of improving links that should have been improved even before the 9/11 attacks. Whether it's done under the umbrella of the security and prosperity partnership, which is now under a great cloud, or through some new intensified bilateral effort—although I think the Mexicans can help as well—we really, really have to intensify our efforts, set some clear goals, and get on with it.
If I may conclude, the reason we have to get on with it is that we have to thank our lucky stars that there has not been another major terrorist strike. We would have run into huge problems once again. Depending on the severity of the strike, it could be almost fatal to two-way trade. We're lying here hostage to the possibility that such a strike might take place, and we're still dealing with the thickness of the border.
The second thing we have to do is ensure that officials on both sides of the border, the border security people, utilize the smartest and the best technology to make the border work better. And you know what? That technology has been around now for a decade. It's just that we're not using it rapidly enough, and somehow there does not seem to be the sense of urgency to deal with it.
Smart card technology on dealing with the borders, which is being used in various forms of cross-border transportation, should be extended right across the board, and most of all, at the highest political level--and I think the Obama-Harper statement helped to do that, and I'm assuming that Mr. Ignatieff did the same thing—