Smart Border Action Plan Status Report

John Manley, Deputy Prime Minister of Canada ^ | October 3, 2003

[ConservativeByChoice]

October 3, 2003

In December 2001, Deputy Prime Minister John Manley and then-Governor Tom Ridge signed the Smart Border Declaration and companion 30-point Action Plan to enhance the security of our shared border while facilitating the legitimate flow of people and goods. The Action Plan has four pillars: the secure flow of people, the secure flow of goods, secure infrastructure, and information sharing and coordination in the enforcement of these objectives.

On September 9, 2002, Prime Minister Chrétien and President Bush met to discuss progress on the Smart Border Action Plan and asked that they be updated regularly on the work being done to modernize our common border. They also asked that the Smart Borders process be expanded to cover new areas of cooperation, including biosecurity and science and technology.

This status report is the fourth since the signing of the Smart Border Declaration.

1 BIOMETRICS
2 PERMANENT RESIDENT CARDS
3 SINGLE ALTERNATIVE INSPECTION SYSTEM
4 REFUGEE/ASYLUM PROCESSING
5 MANAGING OF REFUGEE/ASYLUM CLAIMS
6 VISA POLICY COORDINATION
7 AIR PRECLEARANCE
8 ADVANCE PASSENGER INFORMATION / PASSENGER NAME RECORD
9 JOINT PASSENGER ANALYSIS UNITS
10 MARITIME SECURITY AND FERRY TERMINALS
11 COMPATIBLE IMMIGRATION DATABASES
12 IMMIGRATION OFFICERS OVERSEAS
13 INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION
14 HARMONIZED COMMERCIAL PROCESSING
15 CLEARANCE AWAY FROM THE BORDER
16 JOINT FACILITIES
17 CUSTOMS DATA
18 CONTAINER TARGETING AT SEAPORTS
19 INFRASTRUCTURE IMPROVEMENTS
20 INTELLIGENT TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS
21 CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE PROTECTION
22 AVIATION SECURITY
23 INTEGRATED BORDER AND MARINE ENFORCEMENT TEAMS
24 JOINT ENFORCEMENT COORDINATION
25 INTEGRATED INTELLIGENCE
26 FINGERPRINTS
27 REMOVAL OF DEPORTEES
28 COUNTER-TERRORISM LEGISLATION
29 FREEZING OF TERRORIST ASSETS
30 JOINT TRAINING AND EXERCISES
31 BIOSECURITY
32 SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COOPERATION

[ConservativeByChoice]

Secure the borders! Or...form a committee and talk about it.

Interesting summary of the progress made in this painfully slow process. The 32 items listed above are expanded upon in the complete article.

[snippy_about_it]

Secure the borders! Or...form a committee and talk about it.

LOL. Yeah, the government is good at committee forming. Now what about real security at the borders, especially our southern border??