Travel U.S. will require Canadian travellers to have passports to enter the country as of June 1

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Derwin Gowan
Telegraph-Journal

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ST. STEPHEN - It feels a bit like the countdown to Y2K in St. Stephen these days.

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Derwin Gowan/Telegraph-Journal

Sherry Hatt of St. Stephen fills up at Hardwicke’s Country Store in Calais, Maine. Hatt says new passport rules coming into effect in June will not curtail her cross-border trips. She and her husband got their passports five years ago. Only 35 per cent of New Brunswickers have passports compared to 54 per cent of all Canadians.

The United States intends to impose new rules requiring passports or other documents to enter the country starting June 1.

Most people in this border community expect life to carry on as usual, with people in St. Stephen keeping their regular appointments "over the river" in Calais, Maine.

Many people in St. Stephen and Calais already have passports. Passport Canada set up a mobile unit on Campobello Island on May 7 and one in St. Stephen earlier. The unit will return to St. Stephen on May 27.

It might take a couple of weeks for a passport to arrive in the mail, but the officers on the American side of the bridge over the St. Croix River aren't concerned.

"We're going to be flexible and practical," Joanne Ferreira, a public affairs officer with United States Customs and Border Protection, said Friday in Washington, D.C.

The U.S. agency will not deny entry to American and Canadian citizens who lack the appropriate documents under the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative who are otherwise admissible.

However, anyone without a passport may be forced to wait while others with the correct documents - United States or Canadian passport, Trusted Traveller Card (NEXUS, Sentri or Fast/Expres), United States Passport Card or enhanced driver's licence verifying identity and nationality - get whisked through.

"We don't have a specific time but, again, we're encouraging travellers to apply and get their documents," Ferreira said. "You may be delayed, you may not. The CBP officers are going to have flexibility."

The choice will rest with the American officers, so Ferreira urges Canadians to get their passports or other appropriate documents.

Business people in Calais, especially, do not want their government to cut off Canadian traffic.

On one afternoon last week, more than half the 40 or so cars in the Marden's store parking lot had New Brunswick licence plates, along with one or two from Nova Scotia.

Store manager Sue Maenhout did not wish to speculate on what the changes coming June 1 might mean for her business.

"I sold my glass ball in a yard sale a couple of years ago," she said.

The price of a passport will not stop Canadian shoppers from going over the river, said Greg Carter, manager of Hardwicke's Country Store, which sells Citgo gasoline at the Calais end of the Ferry Point Bridge.

"Not really, it's been like a moot subject," he said.

On Friday he sold regular self-serve gasoline for US$2.429 per gallon, which comes to 71 cents Canadian per litre, Carter said.

Many people in St. Stephen head over on Tuesdays when Hardwicke's drops its gasoline prices by a nickel per gallon.

Take that, and the difference in the price of milk and other items, and a Canadian shopper can save the cost of a passport - $87 plus about $25 for the photo - in about three trips, Carter said.

"You'd be kind of crazy not to," Carter said. "It all comes home to roost in the pocket book."

Despite the hype ahead of the June 1 deadline, only 35 per cent of New Brunswickers have their passports, Passport Canada spokesman Sebastien Bois said last week in Ottawa.

Nationally, 54 per cent of Canadians have their passports. The numbers range from as high as 62 per cent in British Columbia, 60 per cent in Ontario and 58 per cent in Alberta to 38 per cent in Nova Scotia, 36 per cent in Prince Edward Island, 30 per cent in Newfoundland and Labrador, and 12.5 per cent in Nunavut.

A passport costs $87 for an adult, $37 for ages three to 15, both good for five years, and $22 for under threes, good for three years. This does not include the cost of the photos.