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Government Relations Report Ron Steeves First Vice-President On May 9, 2018, the Honourable Ralph Goodale, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, moved that Bill C-21 be read a third time and passed in the House of Commons. As you will remember, Bill C-21 would amend the Customs Act and permit Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) to collect personal information, including name, date of birth, gender and nationality, on all individuals who are leaving or have left Canada. Once this legislation has been passed and an information-sharing arrangement has been established between CBSA and all partners, the entry and exit data for Canadian and American citizens will be shared between both countries. For example, when Canadian citizens enter the United States at a land crossing, their information will automatically be sent to Canada Border Services Agency and they will be recorded as having left Canada. When they re-enter Canada, this information will be transmitted to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and an exit record will be created on the U.S. side. In other words, once this initiative is fully operational, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers will know precisely when you entered and exited the United States. The latest version of Bill C-21 has been amended to define the length of time for which exit data may be retained after its collection. While the previous version of the legislation did not establish for how long data may be kept, the newest version of the bill limits the retention of information to a 15-year period. In addition, during the third reading debate, Minister Goodale also clarified that the information gathered under this bi-national data-sharing program would only be used in the administration of federal programs and that it “would not be shared with the provinces.” This means that the information collected under the initiative will not be used to determine whether residency requirements are being met for provincial health insurance programs. Nonetheless, it is still important that travellers be mindful of these limits and not risk their access to continuous health coverage. We will continue to provide updates on Bill C-21 as it makes its way through the legislative process. In the previous issue of CSANews, I discussed the possible implementation of a vacant homes tax in the City of Toronto similar to the empty homes tax (EHT) which Vancouver put in place in 2016. In addition to the in-person meeting which we held with Mayor Tory’s office, CSA President Karen Huestis also submitted a detailed communication to the City of Toronto’s executive committee outlining our concerns regarding the application of a vacancy tax in the city. On April 17, the executive committee determined that additional research needed to be conducted and that they would revisit the issue following the start of the 2018 to 2022 term of city council. We will continue to monitor this issue and relay any developments to our members as soon as possible. CSA staff members have begun the process of assembling the 7th edition of the Canadian Travellers’ Report Card. This is a national evaluation of federal, provincial and territorial government policies and regulations of importance to travelling Canadians. Our approach is to research these policies and practices and then share the information with each government so that they have an opportunity to comment before our research is published. After receiving feedback from government officials from across Canada, we retain an independent consultant to evaluate our findings and assign a grade to each category. The final report is then made available to our members on our website and sent to governments throughout Canada. It is a critical tool when we sit down with our elected officials and we attempt to keep it as up to date and relevant as possible. Look for its release at Snowbird Extravaganza in January of 2019. As we go to press, the Ontario Progressive Conservatives led by Doug Ford have won a decisive majority in the Ontario election. He will be sworn in as the 26th Premier of Ontario on June 29, 2018. We have spent a great deal of time meeting with Progressive Conservative members on issues of importance to Ontario travellers during their time in opposition. Rest assured that we will be knocking on their doors, as well as those of our friends in opposition shortly. Congratulations to Ontario Premier-designate Ford, as well as to all members of the legislative assembly of Ontario…we look forward to working with all of you. CSANews | SUMMER 2018 | 11

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