TORONTO - The Ontario and Manitoba governments are working toward making it easier for travellers to visit the United States without a passport, but Canadians shouldn't get the wrong message and consider it an invitation to shop more in border cities, says Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty.
McGuinty met Sunday with Manitoba Premier Gary Doer to discuss new high-tech driver's licences the provinces are working on, which will contain citizenship data and could be used in the place of passports at the U.S. border.
Streamlining the process to cross into the United States might tempt more people into shopping stateside, but McGuinty said shoppers should ignore the lure of irresistible deals and support their local economy.
"My preference obviously is that Ontarians shop locally -- it's better for the environment, it saves them time and it's good for the local economy," McGuinty said.
The talk of easier border crossings follows a Statistics Canada report last week that found day trips to the United States hit a six-year high in September, due in no small part to Canadians taking advantage of a strong dollar and lower prices at American retailers.
And McGuinty's comments came on the same weekend that many Canadians were looking over huge receipts from shopping sprees on Black Friday, the shopping holiday in the U.S. that attracts hordes of shoppers and puts even Boxing Day sales to shame.
McGuinty said he'll continue to encourage Canadian retailers to adjust their prices to reflect the higher dollar, but shoppers should also be crunching the numbers to see if they're really saving any money with cross-border shopping once all the costs are considered.
"In many cases, you're going to find that when you factor in the duty and the time, you're going to get just as good a deal here and you get the benefit of knowing you're supporting the local economy and local jobs."
McGuinty said there's no exact timeline on when the new licences will be brought in, and the premiers are waiting on the American government to reveal what specifications they need to satisfy their security concerns.
The provinces will then work with the federal government to integrate citizenship information into the new ID card, said Doer, who added he's confident that the new standard will also encourage Americans to visit Canada and bolster tourism.
"We think that having a driver's licence that provides the information that the U.S. Homeland Security requires is a more affordable way to go in terms of our economies," he said.
"We found common cause with many (U.S.) governors, particularly on the border states, to say a little bit of time will allow us to get technology that is more affordable and more accessible to all our citizens."
McGuinty and Doer also said they support a call for a first ministers meeting on the economy, to discuss how the federal government could help the provinces deal with a high dollar, interest rates and energy prices.
McGuinty is set to meet with Quebec Premier Jean Charest on Monday to discuss economic and trade issues, and the proposed federal legislation to address fair representation by population in the House of Commons.
