Canada is embarking on an effort to test the boundaries of its shared border with the United States, launching a pilot project that would allow northbound land travellers to clear customs while still on U.S. soil.
The federal government is soliciting public comment on the planned project which would establish a preclearance zone inside a Customs and Border Protection facility in Cannon Corners, N.Y., south of Montreal.
“Here’s the announcement we’ve been waiting for,” the binational Future Borders Coalition lobby group enthused last week in an email to its membership.
The notice says the Canada Border Services Agency hopes to launch the two-year project later this year to determine whether similar setups could replace smaller, aging facilities on the Canadian side of the border.
The project carries a price tag of $7.4 million, money that was allocated in the 2021 federal budget after Canada and the U.S. ratified an updated agreement on customs preclearance in 2019.
“I think this is a great thing for Canada and the U.S. It’s been in the works for some time, and now we’re able to actually bring it to fruition,” said Jag Johnston, director general of the agency’s travellers policy and programs directorate.
“It will give us insight into future opportunities where we can do more in terms of pushing the border out … so, yeah, we’re really looking forward to it.”
The specific timeline for the project, which was delayed by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, remains up in the air, but the goal is to be up and running before the end of 2024, Johnston said.
“There has been that appetite since the treaty has been negotiated and then ratified, and now we’re just getting the opportunity to be able to do it.”
A smaller, less busy entry point allows agency officials and agents to work out the kinks and ensure the system can work properly before expanding it to other locations and modes of travel, she added.
The agency operates 117 facilities along Canada’s land borders with the U.S., and Johnston said no fewer than 80 of them are smaller, remotely-located operations that can be difficult and costly to operate and maintain.
The crossing at Cannon Corners, known in Canada as Covey Hill just outside the tiny Quebec town of Havelock, is well-suited to the project because of its location and the fact it won’t impact wait times or volume at busier crossings, Johnston said.
The agency operates some 80 smaller, more remote land crossing facilities along the Canada-U. S. border, many of them in “various states of disrepair,” it notes.
That’s because larger, busier entry points, such as the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor, Ont., or the Peace Arch in Surrey, B.C., take precedence when it comes to upgrades.
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