U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra says the administration might have to “take a look at” customs preclearance at Canadian airports for U.S.-bound travellers, given the drop in cross-border visitors. Preclearance, which has been in place since 1952, enables travellers to be inspected before their departing flights, bypassing officers at their U.S. destination.
“We’re not sure we can make the numbers work anymore because preclearance is something that is done at the expense of the U.S. government. We pay for it,” Hoekstra said.
Early last week, Statistic Canada reported that more U.S. residents came to Canada that month than Canadian residents returned from the U.S. – a feat that’s only happened one other time in roughly the last two decade excluding the COVID-19 pandemic outliers of August and September 2021.
That big reduction amounted to a 32.4% in the number of Canadian-resident return trips from the United States in July. About 2.6 million trips meeting that criteria were made, Statistics Canada said.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection says it has more than 600 officers stationed at airports in six countries: Ireland, Aruba, Bermuda, the United Arab Emirates, the Bahamas and Canada. The Canadian locations include Calgary, Toronto, Edmonton, Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver, Victoria and Winnipeg.
Hoekstra’s comments were made at the Global Business Forum in Banff, Alta., last week as the ambassador engaged in a tense onstage exchange with Canadian Global Affairs Institute fellow Colin Robertson, who suggested that President Donald Trump is uninformed about what Canada has to offer his country.
“I just take great offence at Canadians saying our president is uninformed, our president is untrustworthy, those types of things,” Hoekstra said.
Robertson asked Hoekstra whether he empathizes with Canadians who don’t take kindly to the president’s past musings about Canada becoming the “51st state.”
Hoekstra seemed exasperated by the question.
“My direction from the president is very, very clear: prosperity, safety and security. And for those Canadians who want to talk about growing business opportunities, securing their borders and those types of things…the embassy is open to do business with you,” he said. “If you wanted talk about the ’51st state,’ I’m sorry, I don’t have time to do that.”
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