As Canadians, we don't get to dictate U.S. policy, so when Canadians appear or anyone appears at a U.S. border, they have to accept U.S. law. Certainly my advice to the U.S. government would be the same as I've given this committee, which is you collect information, you use it for the purpose for which it was collected, and when it's no longer necessary or relevant, you safely dispose of that information.
In terms of the impact on Canadians, I think it's important to realize that the data flow from Canada to the United States is occurring as people have already left the United States. While I share the concerns on issues such as profiling, the reality is the trigger for Canada to send this record to the United States is someone leaving the United States and entering Canada and not the other way around, so it's difficult to understand how that, again, would have a significant impact on a traveller. I've just left the United States and come to Canada and now Canada is sending the information that the U.S. presumably already has, other than the fact that I've left.
Again, in terms of information retention, it's difficult to know what the United States will do with that, but again the only information that Canada is really giving them that they don't already have is the date, time, and port of exit. If anything as a Canadian, I'd prefer that the United States knows that I left. That way, the next time I show up requesting entry into their country, they're going to have that record and know that when I said I was staying for a week, I stayed for a week.