(加新社15日电)加拿大人趁加元强势南下购物的风潮正盛，消费者满载而归，车辆却在边境关口排起长龙。加拿大边境人员为民众办理过境和缴税手续，已接近工作负荷的极限。当局只好开放1个难民中心，为旅客办过境手续。
最近不少人到美国扫货，他们常常集体乘坐大巴过境消费，加拿大各地的关口在周末严重堵塞，边境服务局想方设法增设人手和设施，为购物者办理过境和缴税手续。
纽宾士域省圣斯蒂芬(St. Stephen)的居民在国殇日周末到美国缅因州购物，要排两公里长的过境车队。在卑诗省素里(Surrey)的太平洋公路(Pacific Highway)关口，人们要等大约4个小时。
在安省，购物人潮汹涌，当局不得不实施非常措施。上周日下午4时后，大约50辆、每辆可乘多至55人的大巴士抵水牛城(Buffalo)与安省伊利堡(Fort Erie)关口。同日往返的旅客没有免税额，数百加拿大购物者不得不到海关办理缴税手续。
加拿大边境服务局发言人达默利奥-斯维尔(Jean D’Amelio-Swyer)说：“我们不得不让那些大巴士停在我们的商业区，按次序处理。我们还开放特别设施，在1个难民中心办手续，增设更多收银员。”
达默利奥-斯维尔说，问题是，这么多人在同一时间挤在同一地点。结果，这些当日往返的购物者在等候1小时过关，还要等两、三个小时处理商品报关手续。
达默利奥-斯维尔建议，人们仍有兴趣去美国购物，最好选择平日，避开周末，他们就不用在海关的难民中心等候几个小时。
消防救护越境救援 加美商豁免验证
【明报满地可专讯】美国政府近月来一再收紧与加拿大接壤之陆路关卡的安全检查，严重影响两国货运交通，加拿大驻美大使威尔逊昨公开就此表示关注和敦促美国有关部门采取行动纾缓这个“瓶颈”现象。
另外，据本报走访所得：加拿大联邦公安部长戴国卫已经就接触美国国土安全部长，要求共商制定协议，“特许”两国边陲地区城乡巿镇的消防、救护及紧急事故处理单位成员“免证进出境”。
美国与加拿大从西部卑诗至东部纽宾士域等7省接壤的15个州的联邦参众两院议员亦齐声响应。
美国国土安全部的初步的反应为美加两国边境城巿“守望相望，互相照应”的优良传统“将会受到适当的保护”。
据本报了解：加美国边境地区的消防、救护及紧急事故处理单位的大部分成员，多属由当地居民组成的义工。两地之间守望相助的优良传统长达百年。
可是911事件之后，美国政府逐步收紧海陆空三路入境监控，间接替美加两国边境的消防救护单位人员带来“意料之外”的阻延。
最常见者为加拿大消防员因未曾随身携带护照或其他贴有照片的身分证明文件而被拒进入美境；或美国救护人员到加拿大提供紧急救援服务后，因未带有护照或驾照等身分证明文件，而被拒返美。主要原因是双方的消防救援人员几乎全部是土生土长，彼此相熟；但派驻各陆路关卡的边防警卫则来自外地的陌生人，加上他们必须“依法办事”难有“通融余地”。
Canadians shopping in U.S. pushing border resources to limit
Last Updated: Friday, November 16, 2007 | 8:40 AM ET
The Canadian Press
They’re filling a border refugee processing centre to capacity on the weekends, but these weary travellers entering Canada from the U.S. aren’t seeking asylum — they’re cross-border shoppers lured south by the loonie’s record-breaking showing against the Yankee greenback.
Bargain-hungry shoppers — often arriving by the busload — have been choking key border crossings across the country on weekends, straining resources at the border and forcing officials to scramble to find staff and facilities to process their purchases.
In Ontario, a building intended to handle refugee claimants has been pressed into service to deal with the sheer volume of shoppers. All across Canada, the story is much the same as Canadians cash in on a dollar that’s been worth more than its U.S. counterpart for weeks.
Residents of St. Stephen, N.B., endured a two-kilometre lineup of vehicles snaking through their small town bordering on Maine during the Remembrance Day weekend. At the same time, the wait at the Pacific Highway border crossing in Surrey, B.C., was about four hours long.
In Ontario, the crush of cross-border shoppers has led to extraordinary measures.
Last Sunday, 50 chartered shopping buses carrying up to 55 people each began arriving after 4 p.m. at the Fort Erie crossing from Buffalo. With no personal exemptions on same-day travel purchases, hundreds of shoppers had to be processed for tax and possible duty payments.
“We had to park the buses in our commercial area so that we could orderly process them, [and] we did open up extra facilities,” said Jean D’Amelio-Swyer, a spokeswoman for Canada Border Services Agency.
“We opened up a refugee processing centre and we had some extra cashier capability.”
Problem is, there’s only so many people you can put in those buildings at the same time, said D’Amelio-Swyer.
As a result, after waiting an hour to cross the border, same-day shoppers then faced a two- to three-hour wait for customs agents to process their goods.
“At minimum, these people have to pay PST and GST on their goods,” she said. “There may be some duties applicable if the goods are not made in North America.”
Border agents were already working with stretched resources before the dollar’s historic climb and many are now working overtime to handle the current crush, said Ron Moran, president of the Customs Excise Union.
“It’s still relatively early as a phenomenon, but we’re already hearing that they won’t be able to hold that line indefinitely,” Moran said.
Early stages of bargaining
The country’s 10,000 customs and immigration offers have been without a contract since June 21 and are in the early stages of collective bargaining, but no job action is planned, he added.
“If the union were to start exercising pressure, it would get disastrous pretty quickly, [but] we’re not suggesting that we’re at that stage,” he said.
On a relatively calm Tuesday afternoon at the Queenston-Lewiston border crossing near Niagara Falls, Ont., shoppers that passed through customs after a mere 30-minute border wait weren’t all that impressed with the goods to be had south of the border.
“There wasn’t any really huge deals. There was some on video games, which I primarily came for. It was mostly toys and stuff for Christmas,” said Gina Robinson, 38, who made the two-hour trip from her home in Aurora, Ont.
“I probably wouldn’t be in a huge hurry to come back because it’s the whole headache with the border. We were panicking, looking at our watches thinking, ‘What time are we leaving, what time are we leaving?’ ”
How high would the dollar have to go to lure Robinson back to the malls in New York state?
Deal on turkey
“A buck-fifty. In my perfect world, yeah. Otherwise, no.”
All the bargain hunting amounted to little more than Thanksgiving turkey for another Ontario woman who made the trek.
“I feel the prices were not that good, about the same as in Canada,” said Pauline Rochon of Lowbanks, Ont. — about an hour’s drive from the Queenston bridge.
When asked if she managed to ferret out any deals, Rochon replied: “Only on turkey at 29 cents a pound.”
The loonie’s strong performance has turned border traffic flow in Surrey, B.C., somewhat on its head, said Len Dasilva of the West Coast Duty Free shop.
“The busiest use to be on a Sunday when U.S. traffic was heading back. It’s switched to Friday and Saturday now,” said Dasilva.
‘Buying habits are different’
“We lost the U.S. traffic and made it up with Canadians somewhat, but the buying habits are different. Canadians tend not to spend as much per head as Americans.”
The same-day shopping phenomenon has also struck the Prairies, saddling border agents there with the same crush witnessed in Ontario and elsewhere.
“We used to get the 48-hour exemption, the weekend traveller. But now we’re seeing more and more same-day travellers,” said Loretta Nyhus, Canadian Border Services Agency spokeswoman for the Prairie region.
The limited facilities and staff to process those travellers “reduces our capacity to open up additional lanes because there’s only so much capacity within the office.”
Anyone who’s still eager to spend their loonies in the U.S. might want to do it on a weekday to avoid spending several hours in a refugee processing centre with busloads of shoppers, D’Amelio-Swyer said.
“Anyone who’s got the opportunity to plan a shopping trip on a weekday, that might be a better alternative because right now on weekdays we’re not having this huge surge of buses coming back.”
