By Adam Hunt
The CANPASS program for travelers arriving in Canada is now under new
management.
Late in 2003 the program was transferred from the Canada Customs and Revenue
Agency (CCRA) to the new Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA).
In looking at the history of the CANPASS program CBSA has discovered that the
number of CANPASS Private Aircraft memberships has been declining recently.
The drop has been both Canadians and Americans participating in the program.
CBSA is interested in why that is happening and are planning to send a survey
out to recent CANPASS members to find out.
COPA has already sent some thoughts to CBSA on the subject and have asked for
changes to make the CANPASS program work better for pilots in Canada.
The loss of US pilot CANPASS holders is understandable as the falling US dollar
makes travel to Canada less of a bargain that it was in recent years.
The loss of Canadian participants in the CANPASS program is probably due to a
number of different reasons.
COPA regularly hears two major complaints about the CANPASS program that seems
to be contributing to people not participating in it.
Members constantly tell COPA that the inability to bring non-CANPASS holders
back with them makes the program of no value to them - they have to go to an
Airport of Entry (AOE) anyway.
They see the corporate CANPASS holders bringing non-members back and can’t
understand why private aircraft owners can’t do that.
COPA has been working with Customs staff to help make the program better and
more attractive.
In response to a proposed fee increase from $25 per year to $50, COPA convinced
them that this would essentially kill the program.
Although they consequently agreed to change the fee to $40 per five years, they
also changed from family members being included for free to each member must
have their own CANPASS.
For a family of five, CANPASS membership now means an outlay of $200 for five
years versus $125 for the same five year period under the old system and it just
isn’t worth it anymore to many members.
Many COPA members are not seeing CANPASS as good value compared to the
alternative - crossing through an AOE for no cost.
COPA has previously suggested to CBSA that they should be offering CANPASS for
free as it saves the agency so much money not having to meet all those private
aircraft flights!
The more people use it the less manpower CBSA would have to expend.
COPA is concerned that if the CANPASS program isn’t changed to meet pilot’s
needs better that it may just cease to exist, from lack of pilots using it.
If you are a CANPASS holder then when the CBSA survey arrives please do take the
time to tell them what you think about the program and how to make it better.