Travel Visas Will Make $20M
*ACTA noted this issue in our submission to the CTA Review panel. This money would go a long way to help improve efficiencies with CATSA. We thought you would find the following of interest
Kaven Baker-Voakes, www.blacklocks.ca
The government aims to collect more than $20 million a year off foreign air travelers under a new visa scheme, records show. The electronic program will impact 7 in 10 airport visitors to Canada, though authorities admit they don’t know how it will affect tourism.
The Department of Citizenship in an Inquiry Of Ministry tabled in Parliament acknowledged it is unsure of fallout for the travel industry. The Electronic Travel Authorization visa checks take effect in 2016.
“The most shocking aspect is the fact the government had not conducted any study on how this would impact travel,” said MP Arnold Chan, Liberal tourism critic. “It did not even conduct any projections on which countries would be the source of travelers.”
“It seems to me this is something that was done in haste as opposed to typically rolling out a program,” said Chan, MP for Scarborough-Agincourt, Ont. who requested the records in Parliament. “They might have done a pilot project to gather data on the potential impact.”
Citizenship Minister Chris Alexander did not comment. In its report, cabinet said: “The analysis was not able to reliably estimate volumes by country due to a variety of factors such as unpredictable country specific economic conditions. As it would have been speculative to conduct the analysis on a disaggregate basis, reliable projections broken down by country cannot be provided.”
Visitors from countries that don’t currently require a visa to fly to Canada will be compelled to apply for the $7 electronic permit, submitting personal data including birth date, email address and other information for security checks. Americans and flight crews are exempt. Citizenship Canada said it intercepted 7,055 non-visa travellers in 2013 who were denied entry after their arrival.
“The government is obviously demonstrating that there will be an impact; that is shown by their figures,” said Chan. Anticipated fee revenues would run to $15 million in the first year of the program, rising to $25 million by the tenth year. Total revenues over the period from 2016 to 2025 are estimated at $220.7 million.
The citizenship department said non-visa travellers were intercepted at airports for numerous reasons: “Membership in terrorist organizations; espionage; participation in war crimes or crimes against humanity; international human rights violations; membership in organized crime groups; criminality; or issues endangering public health such as tuberculosis,” the department said in a regulatory notice.
Countries impacted by the mandatory checks effective March 15, 2016 are Andorra, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Barbados, Belgium, Bermuda, British nationals from overseas territories including Hong Kong, British Virgin Islands, Brunei, Cayman Islands, Chile, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Montserrat, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Papua New Guinea, Poland, Portugal, Samoa, San Marino, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Spain, St. Helena, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan and the Turks and Caicos Islands, and passport holders from the Holy See.