Thank you, Madam Chair and committee members, for inviting me to address you.
I'd also like to thank my MP Tom Kmiec for his attendance and his valiant support for this cause, along with Mr. Badawey for his interest in the item.
By way of background, like hundreds of thousands of Canadians, my wife and I own a retirement home in the U.S. We also own two vehicles purchased and registered in the State of Arizona. Following the purchase those vehicles, I was surprised to learn that we would not be able to bring them into Canada for a temporary period. The only way under existing legislation, which I understand to be the Motor Vehicle Safety Act, would be to apply to permanently import the vehicle, as you've just heard from several other speakers. It would seem that the Motor Vehicle Safety Act, given its title and its preamble, exists primarily for safety reasons. While laudable and necessary, it seems the act would not apply to a U.S. citizen wishing to bring their vehicle into Canada temporarily. Indeed, we see this by the tens of thousands, I suspect, at border crossings.
While the legislation deals at length with the permanent importation of vehicles, you have to assume that when the legislation was passed it had not been conceived that a Canadian citizen would own a vehicle in the U.S. and wish to bring it temporarily into Canada. This results in the ludicrous situation where a U.S. citizen in this instance enjoys more rights in Canada than a Canadian citizen.
Why should a Canadian citizen wish to bring their vehicle temporarily into Canada? In our own circumstances, one of our vehicles happens to be a convertible sports car, which we would, in the occasional year, like to enjoy for several summer months on the roads in Canada.
Another example that my wife and I encountered was the proposal by Australian friends of ours to join us at our property in the U.S. and take a scenic drive north through the U.S. and through western Canada, from where they would return to Australia from Canada by air, and we would depart back to the U.S. with our van. As it turns out, the only way that was possible was through a costly car rental, and as a result, our proposed road trip was cancelled.
Interestingly, under this legislation, we would have been able to bring a rental car into Canada, but not our own. This begs the question: Why does a U.S.-based rental car company enjoy this right while Canadian citizens do not?
In another instance, my brother-in-law, unaware of these restrictions, intended to trailer his off-road vehicle temporarily into Canada, but was prohibited from crossing with it at the border. He had to leave the vehicle on the U.S. side of the border, drive to his home in Calgary, process paperwork to have it permanently registered in Canada, return to pick up the vehicle, and then return it several months later to leave it permanently back in the U.S.
These are actual occurrences. One can easily imagine other scenarios, too. For instance, should a Canadian citizen with her own U.S.-registered vehicle need to urgently return to Canada but be unable to fly, perhaps due to health reasons, being unable to book or afford an airline flight, or perhaps air traffic being grounded, they are further stymied from.... Let me just say I had understood that they would be further stymied from driving their own vehicle, and now we've just heard that, in cases of emergency, Canadian citizens could bring their vehicles back. I was unaware of that.
For almost five years now I've been investigating and communicating with government officials about this issue. During this time, a Department of Transport employee raised the problem of ensuring that a vehicle brought into Canada temporarily leaves the country. One might ask the same question about a U.S. citizen. Notwithstanding, I had offered a simple and easily implemented process to deal with this issue.
As my time in front of you is limited, and this meeting concerns a legislative problem, not an implementation challenge, I will defer going through this procedure I had suggested. Although, for your reference, you may find my suggestion and copies of letters to Minister Garneau dated January and September of 2019.
In 2017 Mr. Kmiec kindly offered to support a petition to Parliament concerning this issue. I was advised that as few as 25 original signatures of Canadian citizens would suffice. When this fact about petitions was explained, not a single person declined to sign. I easily gathered 100 signatures. Many of these individuals own property in the U.S. and many of them own vehicles in the U.S. It is safe to say that most were aghast to learn of the restrictions on their right. Mr. Kmiec subsequently read and entered our petition in Parliament in 2017.
In summary, I'm asking the committee to initiate the process of having this oversight in legislation corrected, thus restoring the rights of Canadian citizens that have been inadvertently eliminated for no apparent reason.
It is gratifying to see officials from various departments of the civil service in attendance. I am a retired corporate executive from the private sector with a long career in administrative functions. As such, I can fully appreciate the importance of the administrative process when it comes to implementing policy, or in this case, legislation. However, as I fully know from my own career, process and administration follow policy, and not vice-versa.
I acknowledge that this issue affects a very small part of our population. However, I ask, what is the calculus for deciding when to disregard a citizen's rights? I trust in your judgment as parliamentarians to do what is right regardless of the number of Canadians affected.
Thank you for your attention, and I can take questions, too.
