OTTAWA, -- Canada and the United States announced they were increasing facilities to speed up border transits by citizens and residents of the two countries.
US Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan said that a special fast screening process, known as NEXUS-Air, will be launched on November 30 at Vancouver international airport in British Columbia.
This will allow regular travellers across the border, who have been pre-screened and have registered biometric identification, to avoid the long lines at customs and immigration points by using special machines which can verify their biometric identification.
Similarly, motorists who agree to a similar bio-metric pass will be able to take advantage of special "FAST" lanes between British Columbia and the state of Washington (starting October 20) and between Windsor (Ontario) and Detroit (Michigan) starting November 1.
Also, the two countries will launch a pilot pre-screening of commercial traffic using the Fort Erie-Buffalo Peace Bridge crossing point, but with no yet announced date.
Meanwhile, McLellan and Ridge said they planned to expand joint border operations by immigration, customs and police officers of both the United States and Canada.
