Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to the witnesses for the work they're doing.
I just wanted to start questioning with an issue that is probably the most pressing right now, with respect to trade. One of the concerns we have--and obviously we want to maintain security to the greatest degree possible--relates to how we still allow people to move back and forth. I'm very concerned with the condition in June that Canadian citizens will have to have a passport and U.S. citizens will have to have a passport. We've really not taken a lead on this. Certain jurisdictions have. Governor Gregoire and B.C. Premier Campbell have been very aggressive in developing an enhanced driver's licence to take the place of a passport. Even there, the reality is that most people won't have that document in time for the Olympics. As the world's two billion eyes train on that corner of the planet, you're going to have a requirement for a passport that a lot of Americans aren't going to be aware of and they're going to try to get up to Canada. We could have a real mess on the border. It's one of the reasons that I think it's so important that it be at least put off until the other side of the Vancouver Olympics, and we have to make overtures to the Americans in every way possible to do that.
I just wanted to get your comments on this. Let's take constituents in a riding like mine, who want to go down to Buffalo and maybe watch a Buffalo Bills game, or maybe take in a bit of shopping, making sure they declare everything when they come back. How do we make sure we maintain that casual travel? How do you view this enhanced driver's licence?
What other things should we be looking at to make sure that those people who want to legitimately move back and forth and are just casual travellers who aren't going to go and get a passport can do that? Let's be realistic. Particularly in the United States, only 20% of Americans have passports. We don't want to get hammered by this when it comes forward. Already we've seen that we've lost a lot of trade.