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Upinottawa
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Username: Upinottawa

Post Number: 449
Registered: 09-2005
Posted From: 70.28.0.197
Posted on Thursday, July 20, 2006 - 9:21 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

From the freep online: http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs .dll/article?AID=/20060720/NEW S99/60720008

Mayors gather in Windsor to debate passport rule

By BEN SCHMITT
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick gathered with 60 Canadian and American mayors this morning in Windsor to express concerns over a proposal to require passports for border crossings.

Under the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, all Canadian and American travelers crossing into the United States must have passports or a high-technology identification card for border crossings by January 2008.

“We need to really have a conversation about how we strengthen the protection of our borders, but also how we make it free flowing and easy so we all can economically benefit,” Kilpatrick said.

Kilpatrick said many nurses at Detroit Receiving Hospital commute from Canada.

“God forbid something happens in the city of Detroit and people can’t get through the border,” he said.

Kilpatrick said he is supporting the idea of an enhanced license with similar requirements of a passport, but cheaper to obtain.

Windsor Mayor Eddie Francis concurred.

“People wake up in Windsor and decide to go on a Vegas trip,” he said. “If they need a passport, they’re not going to be as spur of the moment. So it impacts cities far removed from the border as well.”

As she waited in traffic to enter the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel from the Canadian side, Beverly Cyr, of Windsor, said she opposes any passport requirement.

“I work as a tour guide in the city,” she said. “People aren’t going to come if they have to pay $100 for a passport.”
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Viziondetroit
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Username: Viziondetroit

Post Number: 596
Registered: 11-2003
Posted From: 69.246.10.173
Posted on Thursday, July 20, 2006 - 9:22 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

“I work as a tour guide in the city,” she said. “People aren’t going to come if they have to pay $100 for a passport.”

nor wait to get it..
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Bvos
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Username: Bvos

Post Number: 1703
Registered: 10-2003
Posted From: 75.10.21.159
Posted on Thursday, July 20, 2006 - 9:30 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

So she's a Canadian from Windsor who gives tours of Detroit, likely to mostly American patrons? I can't imagine that there isn't someone in the city of Detroit as qualified or more qualified than her to do that job.

No offense to my Canadian friends and Canadians on this board, but that doesn't make sense.
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Upinottawa
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Username: Upinottawa

Post Number: 450
Registered: 09-2005
Posted From: 70.28.0.197
Posted on Thursday, July 20, 2006 - 9:35 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Bvos, the city was likely Windsor.

From the Windsor Star online: http://www.canada.com/windsors tar/news/story.html?id=37584b5 b-2390-4734-b02d-8d3c548c8f71& k=43173

Mayors unite to fight passport plan

By Dave Battagello, The Windsor Star

Looming U.S. Homeland Security legislation requiring travellers entering the country to carry a passport is already scaring away tourists from crossing the border in both directions — even those who want to visit family or just grab a quick bite to eat, said Windsor’s Mayor Eddie Francis.

There has to be another less costly and easy-to-acquire solution was the consensus of about 100 municipal and business leaders from both sides of the border who gathered for a summit in Windsor to discuss the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI).

They called for an infinite delay of the legislation until a “sensible solution” is found that does not negatively impact over $1.2 billion per day in trade and tourism dollars between the two nations. Among the binational group of mayors involved were Francis, Toronto’s David Miller and Detroit’s Kwame Kilpatrick.

“There has to be a balance of dealing with the new (security) realities along with a continuation of legitimate travellers being able to cross the border in a way they have done for years,” Francis said.

“This needs to be delayed until there are practical solutions — ones that do not have a devastating impact on any municipality, town or region.” Failing that, the hard-line U.S. security effort to catch bad guys at the border carrying fake identification threatens to forever alter a treasured history of friendship and economic prosperity between both countries, said several of the mayors at the day-long session.

Toronto has already experienced a one per cent decline in U.S. tourism and convention dollars which is being attributed to just the threat of the passport law, Miller noted. He also fears U.S. companies may soon refuse to locate plants in the Toronto region if they feel goods can not be delivered in a timely fashion because of lineups at the border caused by passport enforcement problems.

“We are concerned this will have a significant impact on our economy, trade and our manufacturing industries,” Miller said. “The economic impact could be enormous.”
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Detroit313
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Username: Detroit313

Post Number: 160
Registered: 02-2006
Posted From: 72.229.136.103
Posted on Thursday, July 20, 2006 - 10:35 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I say go for it........next thing ya know those Canadians will be trying to move to Detroit. God forbid that .!. That sucks. Boo Hoo for progress. 313
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Upinottawa
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Username: Upinottawa

Post Number: 454
Registered: 09-2005
Posted From: 198.103.184.76
Posted on Monday, July 24, 2006 - 9:34 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Windsor Star editorial from Saturday:

Border mayors up the ID ante

Mayors from both sides of the border gathered in Windsor this week to urge the United States to delay looming travel security requirements and ultimately replace them with a more convenient and less costly alternative that will ensure continued commerce and camaraderie between Canada and the U.S.

The mayors, including Windsor Mayor Eddie Francis, Kwame Kilpatrick from Detroit and David Miller from Toronto, focused on both the economic and cultural implications of the Western Hemisphere Travel initiative, which will require passports or other secure travel document from everyone, including U.S. citizens, entering the U.S.

Their arguments have already been advanced by political and business leaders from both countries but the weight of their combined voices is significant and represents the concerns of the local economies that will be most affected by the initiative. Hopefully, their voices will be heard and acted upon quickly in Washington's corridors of power.

If their appeals aren't heard -- or if they are ignored by the congressional leaders who passed the initiative following the Sept. 11 attacks -- economies in both countries, particularly in border communities like Windsor, will suffer and the nature of the relationship between Canada and the United States will fundamentally and forever change.

A Conference Board of Canada report concluded the initiative, which has already been delayed once, would have lowered tourism to Canada by 7.7 million visits and $1.8 billion by the end of 2008 had it been implemented as originally planned. Other reports predicted similar economic impacts in the United States as Canadians opted to travel abroad or explore their own country rather than endure hassles and scrutiny at the border.

Francis said the security initiative is already causing an economic downturn because people believe it is already in effect and thoughts about quick day trips, which would have been acted upon in the past, are now quickly dismissed. Miller reported a similar experience in Hogtown, where U.S. tourism to Toronto and convention dollars declined by one per cent in the last year.

The cultural arguments advanced by the mayors were equally persuasive and bolstered the comments made recently in Washington by Prime Minister Stephen Harper that erecting walls instead of bridges between friends is an overreaction that terrorists would be happy to see.

"We want (both federal governments) to understand the cultural vibrancy and vitality that stems from these border communities and how we want to continue that," said Kilpatrick, who went to Windsor's Jackson Park on a first date with the woman who would become his wife. "It's not just casinos, there are people that attend churches on both sides."

The cultural argument has also been passionately voiced by James Blanchard, who served as former U.S. President Bill Clinton's envoy to Canada from 1993 to 1996.

"If it is not managed right, it could be a total train wreck in our relationship," said Blanchard. "A lot of people in Washington don't understand the degree of social integration between our two countries."

Paul Cellucci, who served as U.S. President George W. Bush's envoy to Canada, likewise panned the plan, calling it a "a potential disaster" that would do very little to promote the physical security of the U.S. while doing much to harm its economy.

Too many people on both sides of the border and both sides of the political spectrum have spoken out against this plan for U.S. congressional leaders to keep their ears and minds closed to the need to maintain an open border.

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