Many thanks to member Tyrone Wheeler for helping with this project. We are sending Deanna up to Toronto next week to lay out the ground work. We believe that this will be the biggest, best home inspection event of the century!
Pres Bush has made it a requirement for all people ( Even USA citisens) to have a pass Port
to cross the us border into the states by Jan I 2007.
How will this effect some who do not wish to get a pass port they will not be able to come to Canada.
This is also going to stop a lot of cross border shoping both ways.
My best friend in Florida who comes to my place every year will no longer
be able to come to Canada as he will not buy a pass port.
Many northern states Canada have been trying to get this changed .
Pres Bush says it has gone through the US congress and it will not be changed.
The longest undefended border in the world is changing.
Many conventions have been cancled in Toronto already.
Roy Cooke sr
Why is it Roy that every time something positive is brought to the table you have to come up with a negative to offset it. I am going to tell you what my parents and grandparents always told me, if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all. My father wasn’t that polite so I will reiterate. shut up, enough already, quit while your ahead, cease and desist. You get the picture?
Sorry for the rant but I am tired of people pissing in my cornflakes.
Larry
Larry,
I thought Roy brought up a good valid point. Seems to me that it would be easier to get 500 people across the border rathar than 8,000.
Larry I am sorry for you if the truth bothers you .
I am disapointed that we will no longer be able to visit the USA with out a pass port .
But this will be the law the way it is written now.
I do not have a pass Port and do like my southern friends to the point I have gone to the USA up to 13 times in one year .
I also feel bad for My friends in Florida for I was told they will not get a pass port .
I also feel many americans also will not get a pass port.
If you read the News Papers you see that Many Conferences have been cancled in Toronto for next year ( The Dentists are one that comes to mind )
Hiding the truth will not make it go away…
- December 31, 2006: Requirement applied to all air and sea travel to or from Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean, and Bermuda.
- December 31, 2007: Requirement extended to all land border crossings as well as air and sea travel.
For more information, please visit the State Department travel website at www.travel.state.gov or the U.S. Department of Homeland Security website at www.dhs.gov. To apply for a passport, U.S. citizens can visit www.travel.state.gov or call the U.S. Passport Office at 1-877-4USA-PPT or TDD/TYY: 1-888-874-7793. Foreign nationals should contact their respective governments to obtain passports.
…Roy Cooke sr
Larry,
Your remarks are unfair. Roy is probably one of NACHI’s greatest supporters and goes out of his way to help people. He is only stating a reality that Nick and others at head office may not have thought about when they decided to do this. I would love nothing more than to see everyone come to Toronto next year. However, when you consider that only about 25% of Americans have passports this could have detrimental effects on the conference.
The Canadian and American Government are working on a identification card that will be used to travel inot canada and the us. I think that is a positive, and helps keep our nations secure.
Speaking from 1.5 miles north of the border I can tell you that people on both sides of the line are screaming their heads off. This measure would kill the economies of towns on both sides and send thousands of people onto the welfare lines.
There is still a lot of work to be done ( even Hillary - I will take a stand on nothing - Clinton has her knickers in a bunch over this one) but it is quite clear that this will not stand.
This is what is being proposed now. Hopefully it will all get sorted out before the convention.
Taken from the U.S. Department of State website
New Requirements for Travelers
The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 requires that by January 1, 2008, travelers to and from the Caribbean, Bermuda, Panama, Mexico and Canada have a passport or other secure, accepted document to enter or re-enter the United States. In order to facilitate the implementation of this requirement, the Administration is proposing to complete it in phases following a proposed timeline, which will be published in the Federal Register in the near future.
In the proposed implementation plan, which is subject to a period of initial public comment, the Initiative will be rolled out in phases, providing as much advance notice as possible to the affected public to enable them to meet the terms of the new guidelines. The proposed timeline will be as follows:
- December 31, 2006 - Requirement applied to all air and sea travel to or from Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean, and Bermuda.
*]December 31, 2007 - Requirement extended to all land border crossings as well as air and sea travel.
This is a change from prior travel requirements and will affect all United States citizens entering the United States from countries within the Western Hemisphere who do not currently possess valid passports. This new requirement will also affect certain foreign nationals who currently are not required to present a passport to travel to the United States. Most Canadian citizens, citizens of the British Overseas Territory of Bermuda, and to a lesser degree, Mexican citizens will be affected by the implementation of this requirement.
Toronto Star Page A6 Wednesday April 19 2006
No plan for Canadian ID card
Day rules out `expectations’ of U.S.-style border pass
Deadline for passport requirement on track, Chertoff says
Apr. 19, 2006. 01:00 AM
TIM HARPER
WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON—Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day says the Conservative government has no plans to produce a secure identity card for Canadians crossing the U.S. border.
That means, barring an amendment to legislation in the U.S. Congress, Canadians crossing into the United States at land borders beginning Jan. 1, 2008 will need a passport — or will be sent home.
Day’s comments, following a meeting with U.S. Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff, marked the first time Ottawa has flatly ruled out its own version of an identity card which Americans will be required to carry to re-enter their country.
The U.S. card will be cheaper than a passport, easily obtained and there will be discounts for families.
There had been an expectation here that Canada would respond in kind, but Day said he did not want to "raise expectations’’ that his government would develop something that could be cheaper and more easily obtained by Canadians than a passport.
"We’re not actively pursuing something different at this point,‘’ Day said.
He said Americans will be asked for proof of identity as they enter the U.S. and Canadians can carry passports to cross at the U.S. border.
"We’re not suggesting at this time that we’re launching into a program of a Canadian identity card or anything of that nature.
“We’re looking at telling these Canadians that as these deadlines approach … that Canadians travelling to the United States will still have full access with their passport as they have had in the past.”
Canadians travelling to the U.S. by air or sea will need passports Jan. 1, 2007.
There have been some suggestions within the U.S. administration that the technological requirements and the need to train staff could delay the implementation of the 2008 law.
But Chertoff indicated he wanted to make the deadlines written into the legislation, just as U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and President George W. Bush did following recent meetings with their Canadian counterparts.
"In terms of legislation, I guess anything is possible, but I think we have to work with the law as it currently exists,‘’ Chertoff said. "We think this a deadline we can meet.‘’
Only one in four Americans has a passport, which cost $97 (U.S.), but are good for 10 years.
The new U.S. PASS card is likely to cost about $49.
More Canadians (about 39 per cent) have passports, but those who do not, must spend $87 for a document that is valid for only five years.
One U.S. lawmaker from a border state, Democratic Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, has called for an exemption for Americans under 17, and has suggested that free day passes be made available at border crossings and the new cards here cost no more than $20 (U.S.).
Thanks for the information Roy, but, i think we may loose our focus here. Instead of scaring people away, we need to re-direct our attention on promoting such an event.
I am forming a planning comittee, where we will be able to gather our thoughts together and persue a greater capacity of Canadian Organizations to participate in this event.
Lets get our thinking caps on and work together as a team to make NACHI CANADA, the household name all accross this fine Country of ours.
I am with you all the way and this could be the greatest thing to happen in the Canadian homeinspection industry. .
Please keep me in mind if help is needed.
Roy sr
Roy, Next weekend I am trying to get a group of us together to begin the planning of this event.
This might be an event you would want to invite the minister of CMHC, or a provincial member of parliament to.
I don’t understand what the big deal is in getting a passport. It’s not like anyone will spend a life savings on one. It’s just a small additional cost that we’ll have to budget for. After all home inspectors make big bucks. Oh sorry , got a little off track. Onward & upward! Doug
I just get tired of the negative. I don’t care what the reality is, if people want to come they should be encouraged, not discouraged. Where there is a will there is a way. If you continuously look for the bad it will jump up and hit you in the face. If you concentrate on the solution instead of the problem you are part of the solution.
Larry
Let us know how we can support such an event.
Regards,
Dale Noble
Larry, ok fine, lets not defeat ourselves with the passport issue. Roy and I were just raising a possible problem, we never said we were against the idea. As I said before, I would love to see the convention come to Toronto. Nick will have to start letting the membership know almost immediately in order to give everyone enough time to make their passport arrangements.
Tyrone, I am a former Chamber of Commerce Director and Past President.
I have a few political connections. Let me know what I can do to help.
Hi. guys, and sorry to eaves drop, but could not resist due the topic.
I agree with all of you on this issue being from Madawaska, Maine and sharing the border with Edmonston for most of my life.
What can be done or what can the people do to evade this assinine legislated rule into affect? For Centuries, Americans and Canadiens have been able to cross the Border at leisure, why would any bureaucratic imbasil want to change that?
Sorry to intrude. Being French/Canadien, I figured you would not mind.
Marcel.
Marcel
To here George Bush tell it his hands are tied. It is an act of Congress.
Guys its not a big deal to get a passport. Everyone should have one, its a great piece of ID. What if you had to leave the country in a hurry? 