Canada, US to work towards faster border traffic for 2010 Olympics
23/7/2008 17:46
A group of Canadian and US government and business leaders have agreed to
cooperate to speed up cross-border traffic and prepare for the upcoming 2010
winter Olympics held in Vancouver.
Members of the Pacific Northwest Economic
Region issued a border charter yesterday advocating both the American and
Canadian governments to help speed up the flow of traffic between the two
countries.
With commercial vehicles now taking longer than ever to get across
borders and tourism from the US to Canada plummeting, governments need to remove
all the stops to get traffic moving, the group said at a meeting in
Vancouver.
The charter covers three elements of border management, namely
keeping people happy, keeping it safe and keeping it moving.
It calls for the
implementation of frequent-traveler programs which use new technologies like
radio frequency identification method to help speed people through the
border.
The charter also calls on both federal governments to beef up border
staffing and improve traffic management procedures for peak times.
An
estimated 5,000 additional people and 2,500 cars will cross the border each day
during the Games than normally do.
Xinhua
|
