Mr. Speaker, it is no surprise to any of my colleagues that I would be speaking on the preclearance bill. The movement of goods and persons across the Canada-U.S. border is a pet project of mine. I have been working with the Cascadia trade corridor project for almost two years now and have appreciated the preclearance that has been a pilot project at the Vancouver airport.
Although I share the concerns of my hon. colleague, that the bill should have and could have been introduced through the House of Commons rather than the Senate, which is an unelected, unaccountable body, I do feel that the legislation is very dearly and badly needed to advance the free trade that has been developed between Canada and the United States, as well as making it easier for our trading partners from countries other than the United States and Canada.
This preclearance bill will make it much easier for the international community to use Canada as a gateway to its trade in the U.S. or to use Canada as a gateway from the U.S. back home. It is essential that we make the movement of people, who have legitimate business to carry on, or a legitimate desire to visit Canada or the United States, as unencumbered as possible.
One of the concerns people express is that travellers would fall under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and this preclearance bill addresses that. It allows American customs and immigration officers to have a degree of law enforcement of the American act on Canadian soil, but with limitations. I think that would meet the concern that some Canadians have that the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms would be somewhat undermined.
I think this preclearance bill does deal with the issue. For anyone who is concerned about the heavy arm of the U.S. authorities, that would be minimized. It is not to say that we will not see the odd incident that we have seen in the past happen, but I think the bill clarifies the role that U.S. officials would have in Canada and reciprocally what role Canadian officials would have in the United States.
I would like to share with Canadians, who might be watching or reading Hansard on the Internet, that we cannot underestimate the importance of our trade with the United States. There is over $1.4 billion worth of trade between Canada and the United States every single day. The free trade agreement accounts for about a third of Canada's GDP, which means a lot of jobs. It means a lot of Canadians are working today because of the trade arrangement we have with the United States.
Canadians can also appreciate that part of that ease of trade is the ease of movement of persons and goods across the border. We in the House have a responsibility to make sure that everything humanly possible is done to make sure that the trade corridors have the right infrastructure and the right legislation to allow for the movement of trade, people and goods, that will allow this free trade agreement with the United States, and potentially our NAFTA agreement with Mexico, to reach the potential that is out there. It means jobs for Canadians. It means an increasing standard of living for Canadians. Hopefully, it means lower taxation and a greater awareness of what the North American continent has to offer to the international trade community.
The preclearance act is a start. My understanding is that this preclearance act is primarily for airports. Although I think it is very important that it be started with the air industry because it has already shown that it works very well, we, in particular on the west coast with Amtrak, would like to see this brought in very quickly in terms of looking at train services between Canada and the United States. We could then continue to promote the “two nation vacation” concept that is being promoted by Cascadia and, I would imagine, other trade corridors are also looking at it. We could then promote the concept of international travellers being able to land in our country and getting preclearance in any mode of transportation. This would allow our customs and immigration agencies to highlight their time and pinpoint their efforts on the 20% of problem cases.
Preclearance allows far more information to be shared with our authorities before they transfer across the border. It allows customs and immigration officials at the border to concentrate on those individuals who may create the problems that we are all concerned about, whether it is illicit drugs, illicit goods or illegal immigration flowing across the border. This would allow both Canada and the United States to concentrate their efforts and resources on the problem cases.
Hopefully this preclearance will be brought through not only for air, but for rail and potentially trucks. It would be great to see trucks enter some kind of preclearance which could take place outside of the border corridor or the border infrastructure. What we see now is a congestion of trucks and trains having to stop at the borders. This has caused a problem for Canada in trying to meet its pollution requirements under its Kyoto obligations.
A lot of pollution is caused by the delay and congestion in the movement of people and goods by truck traffic. A lot of pollution we see every day is caused by trucks lining up and being put in park or neutral while they wait to proceed either on city streets or across the border at various check points. To have preclearance for people who are not a problem in an area that is not consuming time at a congestion point would be such a great thing for the advancement of our trade corridors.
The preclearance act is a good first step. I am disappointed that it came not through the House of Commons but through the Senate. Barring that, I look forward to legislation that will broaden the application of the preclearance. I would like to see that it is not too long a time before these kinds of applications are added to the preclearance.
Certainly this is a first step. I look forward to supporting it and to making sure that at the Vancouver airport, at the Amtrak station in Vancouver, at the border crossings this kind of preclearance is a very effective way of moving not only goods, but people so that we can have this two nation vacation. We can have open borders and free trade that benefits all Canadians.