VZCZCXRO4868
PP RUEHGA RUEHHA RUEHQU RUEHVC
DE RUEHOT #0108/01 0222043
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 222043Z JAN 07 ZDK
FM AMEMBASSY OTTAWA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 4809
INFO RUCNCAN/ALL CANADIAN POSTS COLLECTIVE
RUEHME/AMEMBASSY MEXICO 1612
RULSDMK/DEPT OF TRANSPORTATION WASHDC
RHEFHLC/HOMELAND SECURITY CENTER WASHINGTON DC

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