IMPLEMENTATION OF WHTI AIR RULE: CANADA IS MOSTLY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 OTTAWA 000108

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

FOR WHA/CAN, EB/TRA, AND CA/PPT

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ECON KHLS EAIR ASEC CPAS CA
SUBJECT: IMPLEMENTATION OF WHTI AIR RULE: CANADA IS MOSTLY
READY

REF: A) STATE 7396 B) TORONTO 00022

SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED--PLEASE PROTECT ACCORDINGLY.


1. (SBU) Summary: The general view of Mission Canada, from
Nova Scotia to British Columbia, is that the January 23
implementation of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative
(WHTI) passport requirement will take place with little
disruption to air travel from Canada to the United States.
Under the new WHTI requirement, all travelers, U.S. citizens
included, entering the United States by air must present a
valid passport as their travel document. A reasonable
phased-in implementation plan will allow legitimate travelers
who lack a passport to still enter the United States for a
limited time. The only snag in smooth implementation might
occur where air carrier station managers at Canadian airports
choose to not issue boarding passes to passengers without
passports unless specifically instructed to do so by their
headquarters.


2. (SBU) Summary continued: Mission Canada posts have
conducted considerable outreach to ensure that the Government
of Canada (GOC),airlines flying from Canada to the U.S., and
American and Canadian citizens--the traveling public--are
aware of this new passport requirement. At the eight major
Canadian airports served by U.S. Customs and Border
Protection (CBP) preclearance facilities, transitional
procedures are in place to allow travelers to make their
flights to the U.S. with alternate documents if they have not
yet obtained a passport. This will be a limited grace
period, however. At Canadian airports without U.S.
preclearance facilities, we have made an effort to inform
carriers of the transitional plan and its policy that they
will not be fined, at the present time, for boarding
passengers on U.S.-bound flights who do not have passports.
A special provision of the U.S. passport requirement was
announced to ensure the return to Canada of the tens of
thousands of "snowbirds" who spend winter months in southern
climes. Interestingly, it appears that the GOC has done less
to prepare its citizens for the passport requirement than the
United States, with long wait times and application backlogs
reported at Canadian Passport Offices. End summary.

--------------
Getting the word out
--------------


3. (SBU) There has been a Mission-wide effort to educate and
inform Government of Canada (GOC) officials about the new
rule for air travel from Canada to the United States.
(Comment: The GOC "gets it" regarding the air rule, at last,
though there is still an effort underway in the GOC to find a
special exemption for Canadians crossing the land border when
that rule goes into effect in 2008. End comment.) From the
Ambassador to first-tour officers, we have taken every
opportunity during speaking engagements (at Rotary Clubs,
chambers of commerce, travel associations, business groups),
through the media (television, radio, journalists'
roundtables, op-ed pieces),and using other electronic
mediums (consular section voice mail messages, Mission Canada
websites, our newsletters to American communities) to make
sure the message has been delivered. Printed notices of the
new rule were made available to every American calling at
Mission Canada consular offices. Prominent posters in
waiting rooms advertised the passport rule, and Consular
Officers patiently explained it when asked.


4. (SBU) Mission Canada also contributed to GOC and Canadian
Q4. (SBU) Mission Canada also contributed to GOC and Canadian
airport authorities' efforts over the past three months to
use posters and billboards to advise travelers of the need to
get a passport for air travel to the U.S. after January 23.
CBP has been distributing handouts and has visuals
advertising the requirement at all of its preclearance
facilities. Since the start of the new year, national print
media across Canada carried GOC ads, either one-fourth or
one-half page, carrying the same message. In addition, GOC
officials have been quoted in numerous articles on WHTI, or
on Canadian efforts to produce passports and meet the
increased demand as a result of WHTI. GOC websites (Foreign
Affairs, Canada Border Services Agency, Public Safety, etc.)
carry extensive information on the subject. Minister of
Public Safety Stockwell Day has been prominent among the GOC
ministers holding media encounters to discuss the
implementation of WHTI and Canadian preparations to do so.
He has consistently supported the changes in air regulations
as reasonable. (Comment: Minister Day's message is somewhat

OTTAWA 00000108 002 OF 004


mixed, however, in that he continues to voice concern over
the negative effects on trade and travel that the land and
sea rules will have when they are put in place in 2008. End
comment.)

--------------
The message has been delivered
--------------


5. (U) Mission Canada officers have conducted interviews and
site visits with U.S. and Canadian authorities at all major
(and several minor) airports across Canada to gauge the
preparedness of government and airline officials for
implementation of the WHTI passport requirement for air
travel on January 23. (Comment: We also hope to have
personnel present at the major airports on January 23 to
observe the start of implementation. End comment.) The view
from across Canada:


6. (U) The 11-member Atlantic Canada Airport Authority has
gotten the word out to all its members about the WHTI
requirement. Even though some of the airports who belong to
the Authority do not have direct flights to the U.S., they
now advise intending passengers who may be connecting to
onward U.S. flights about the passport rule. Halifax, the
busiest of Nova Scotia's airports, has been advertising the
need for U.S.-bound passengers to get a passport since the
CBP preclearance facility opened in October 2006. The
Halifax airport website has a scrolling banner advising air
travelers of the need to have a passport for travel to the
U.S. after January 23. The CBP Port Director estimates that
over 90 percent of the passengers coming through preclearance
are already using passports.


7. (U) A survey in September 2006 in Quebec indicated that
even at the land border crossing of Jackman/Armstrong, nearly
half of the travelers were presenting passports as proof of
citizenship. U.S. officials at Quebec border crossings and
Amconsul Quebec City officers have been urging travelers to
obtain passports.


8. (U) In Montreal the airport authority and CBP have
advertised the passport requirement for months. Visits to
Montreal by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and State
Department officers handling passports and other travel
programs afforded an opportunity to get the message on WHTI
out to a number of influential audiences and journalists.
All posts have used visits by USG officials working on WHTI
to convene government and media representatives. Posts have
also been effective at using large conferences (Business
Trade Alliance, Pacific Northwest Economic Region, etc.) as
appropriate fora to discuss WHTI. (Note: Mission Canada
wishes to add a special note of appreciation to DAS Frank
Moss of CA, who spent many days in Canada over the past year
helping us get the message out. End note.)


9. (SBU) Far western Canadians appear to be prepared for
implementation of the air rule. Vancouver's air travelers,
already a pretty sophisticated group, are getting their
Canadian passports despite four-hour line ups to make an
application. Vancouver International Airport's CBP facility
does not anticipate problems. The four airports in the
Calgary consular district with regularly scheduled flights to
the U.S. were for the most part uninformed regarding the
transitional plan until Amconsul Calgary officers shared
copies of it with them on January 19, but all of them thought
that the overall WHTI passport rule for air travel had been
adequately publicized. (Comment: Some airline personnel in
Qadequately publicized. (Comment: Some airline personnel in
Alberta and elsewhere seem uncertain as to how much
flexibility there is in implementing the regulations,
however. See para. 12 below. End Comment.)


10. (U) In Ottawa, the Air Transport Association of Canada
(ATAC) expressed its confidence that air travelers heading
south would experience no major problems on January 23. ATAC
and its membership have been proactive since the WHTI rule
was finalized in advising clients to get passports. On
January 19, ATAC forwarded to all its members, which include
most Canadian commercial carriers, the DHS transitional
enforcement plan that DHS had provided to air carriers in
Washington on January 18 (see para. 13 below),noting that it
was an internal document only and not for distribution to the
general public. ATAC members view the passport requirement
favorably since it reduces the non-standard and questionable
forms of passenger documents that airlines sometimes have to
deal with. ATAC believes that air travelers are adequately

OTTAWA 00000108 003 OF 004


informed of the passport rule. On January 19, the Embassy
also contacted the headquarters of Air Canada, which said
that it had transmitted the text of the transitional plan to
all of its station managers in Canada with instructions that
they should process passengers according to the DHS plan.
Also on January 19, the CBP Port Director at the Ottawa
preclearance facility met with carriers and provided
information on the transitional plan.

--------------
Snowbirds addressed
--------------


11. (U) After meeting with Canada's Minister of Public
Safety Stockwell Day in Washington on January 18, DHS
Secretary Michael Chertoff said that DHS would accommodate

SIPDIS
the many Canadians who take up winter residence in the
southern United States, or who fly to Mexico and the
Caribbean on flights that land in the United States.
Chertoff said that DHS will "allow them to depart the United
States without a passport - for some significant period of
time - to avoid the problem of people who might have come
last year before the (WHTI) requirement." The DHS decision
will allow the current flock of snowbirds to return to Canada
without passports.

--------------
Possible pitfall avoided--maybe
--------------


12. (SBU) In calls last week on CBP preclearance officers,
Pearson Airport officials, and airlines serving Pearson,
Amconsul Toronto officers discovered that information about
how to handle passengers without passports had not been
passed from airline headquarters in the U.S. to their offices
in Toronto. Air carriers had been briefed last week in
Washington by DHS and State on transitional procedures that
CBP would use on January 23 to allow passengers without
passports to board aircraft for the U.S. In discussing how
to handle passengers without passports, Toronto carriers were
confused about whether passengers without passports could be
boarded or not. One U.S. carrier operating out of Toronto
said that its instructions from headquarters were that its
personnel should deny boarding passes to any passengers
without passports. That statement indicated that information
from the briefing in Washington had not been passed to
Toronto. On January 22 Toronto also contacted one of
Ontario's regional jet operators that flies out of three
non-preclearance airports to the U.S. That carrier had not
heard of the phase in of WHTI implementation and was planning
to deny boarding to passengers without passports. (Note: A
U.S. carrier operating out of Saskatoon said that it, too,
had been instructed by headquarters that passengers without
passports should not be allowed to board. End note.)


13. (SBU) Amconsul Toronto requested clarification from
Washington. Once alerted to this seeming breakdown in
communication between carriers' headquarters and their
Canadian airport station offices, DHS issued a "WHTI Public
Version of Enforcement Plan" for dissemination to all
airlines. The document, which is for internal airline use
only, outlines the phased implementation plan with which DHS
proposes to address the problem of air travelers who do not
have a passport after January 23. This plan will "solicit
compliance while minimizing the possible adverse impact on
carriers and the traveling public." Basically, it offers the
assurance that during the transitional phase of WHTI
implementation, travelers who are otherwise qualified for
Qimplementation, travelers who are otherwise qualified for
admission to the U.S. may be boarded without a passport.
Passengers who travel without a passport will be entered into
the DHS data base and admonished to get a passport.
Penalties will not be initiated against carriers who board
passengers who lack a passport.

--------------
The Wild Card
--------------


14. (U) On Friday afternoon, Amconsul Winnipeg alerted us
to another possible problem with smooth implementation of the
WHTI passport rule, despite the reasonable plan for a
phased-in implmentation devised by DHS. Staff working for at
least one carrier in Winnipeg indicated that they would not
board any passengers without a passport--no exceptions. On
January 19, Amconsul Calgary reported that the notice of the
implementation plan and grace period for the passport

OTTAWA 00000108 004 OF 004


requirement may not have reached the carriers at Edmonton,
Calgary, Regina, and Saskatoon airports; some carriers had
indicated that they intended to turn away passengers without
passports. Calgary officers distributed copies of the
implementation plan.


15. (SBU) Also on January 19, Amconsul Quebec City officers
delivered copies of the DHS transitional plan to airlines
handling regularly scheduled flights to the U.S. from Jean
Lesage Airport. Most of the airline representatives
indicated this was the first time that they had seen the DHS
guidance on phased implementation. Airline staff choosing to
follow strict chain of command procedures may decide to not
board passengers without passports until they receive an
internal instruction that they do so. So, unless
headquarters send specific directives, it looks like
passengers without passports could be denied boarding in some
Canadian airports. (Comment: one would expect that denial
of boarding would not occur for long, however, as the
airlines losing passengers would see the
competition--airlines that do board them--picking up all the
business. If some carriers operate using the DHS phased
implementation plan, we expect that all carriers will quickly
fall in line for fear of losing passengers. End comment.)

-------------- --------------
Americans ready for the passport rule--What about Canadians?
-------------- --------------


16. (SBU) The effort to promote passports has been a huge
success among Americans. There are an estimated 72 million
Americans with passports at present. There has been a
significant increase in applications as WHTI implementation
approaches. The U.S. is currently issuing about 325,000
passports per week. By contrast, Canada seems ill prepared
to meet the rapidly increasing demands of Canadians for
passports. GOC sources allow as how there is presently a
backlog of over 100,000 applications for Canadian
passports--which will require 11-12 weeks to clear. Wait
times in Vancouver and Ottawa Canada Passport Offices
routinely run to three hours currently.


17. (U) Comment: With possible exceptions where carrier
station managers have not received instructions from
headquarters, it appears that implementation of the WHTI
passport requirement for air travel will proceed smoothly on
January 23. We will have our eyes in the field to record
developments--stay tuned. Thanks to all constituent posts
for both their efforts to inform about WHTI and their
reporting on preparedness for WHTI in their consular
districts. A special thanks to Amconsul Toronto for raising
the alarm when you discovered that the Washington briefing on
phased-in implementation had not been passed on to all those
in Canada with a need to know.

Visit Canada's Classified Web Site at
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/ottawa

WILKINS