Canada
Informal preclearance arrangements between the U.S. and Canada began in Toronto, Ontario, in 1952, following a request from American Airlines. This was extended and formalized with Canada's passage of the Air Transport Preclearance Act passed by the Canadian House of Commons in 1974, the 1999 Preclearance Act and with the 2001 Canada–U.S. Agreement on Air Transport Preclearance. The preclearance agreement is fully reciprocal, meaning the Government of Canada has the option of opening Canadian Preclearance facilities in the United States, but as of 2011 this option has not been exercised by the Canadian government. The following Canadian airports operate U.S. preclearance facilities:
- Calgary International Airport
- Edmonton International Airport
- Halifax Stanfield International Airport
- Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport
- Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport
- Toronto Pearson International Airport
- Vancouver International Airport
- Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport
The U.S. operates a preclearance post at Pacific Central Station for Amtrak Cascades rail service between Vancouver, British Columbia, and Seattle, Washington.
The U.S. operates a preclearance post at the port of Vancouver. This is particularly valuable to travellers using cruise liners which visit Alaska or that depart from Vancouver and have a first stop at other US coastal cities situated along the west coast of North America (Seattle, Astoria, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego).
The U.S. operates preinspection posts for immigration only (customs is still performed upon arrival in the U.S.) at the port of Victoria for the Black Ball Line MV Coho car ferry service to Port Angeles, Washington, and at the terminal in Sidney for the Washington State Ferries service to Anacortes, Washington.
Per the request of Porter Airlines, a new terminal building constructed at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport officially opened in Fall 2010 and includes both Canada Border Services Agency and provisions for U.S. Customs and Border Protection border preclearance facilities, however the latter has been denied by Washington.
In May 2012, U.S. Senators Charles Schumer, Kirsten Gillibrand, Patrick Leahy, and Bernie Sanders sent a letter to President Barack Obama urging him to fastrack the approval of a preclearance facility in Montreal's Central Station that will benefit U.S. bound travelers from having to stop at the rail station located in Rouses Point, New York for immigration and customs checks whenever they cross the U.S.-Canadian border.
Read more about this topic: United States Border Preclearance
Famous quotes containing the word canada:
“I fear that I have not got much to say about Canada, not having seen much; what I got by going to Canada was a cold.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I do not consider divorce an evil by any means. It is just as much a refuge for women married to brutal men as Canada was to the slaves of brutal masters.”
—Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906)
“Though the words Canada East on the map stretch over many rivers and lakes and unexplored wildernesses, the actual Canada, which might be the colored portion of the map, is but a little clearing on the banks of the river, which one of those syllables would more than cover.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)