People line up before entering the security zone at Pearson International Airport in Toronto. Jonathan English argues that today, there is a risk the U.S. could pause or even cancel the NEXUS program.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
Jonathan English is a Toronto-based infrastructure policy consultant and writer, and a fellow at New York University’s Marron Institute of Urban Management.
The NEXUS program has helped Canadians speed through the border and airport security for decades. It was created in 2000 to allow people to get pre-approved as low-risk travellers so that border officials and airport security can spend time focusing on those who require additional attention. It’s a win-win for both passengers and the Canadian Border Services Agency. However, it requires Canadians to seek approval from the United States Customs and Border Protection to become a member, sharing extensive personal information and having their fingerprints added to American government databases, even if they have no intention of ever travelling to the United States.
It is past time for Canada to develop a Canada-only trusted-traveller program. It’s an idea I’ve been pushing for years, and was pleased to see the editorial board of this newspaper make the same argument last weekend. Canadians should not need American approval to be able to access a priority security line at the airport when flying from Regina to Vancouver, or at the border when arriving home to Montreal from a business trip to Germany.
This arrangement might once have seemed like a reasonable by-product of post-9/11 co-operation. Today, when most peer countries operate national trusted-traveller programs under their own authority, it looks increasingly anachronistic.
The NEXUS trusted-traveller program was created in 2000.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
During the pandemic, the United States unilaterally halted NEXUS processing for long periods, creating massive backlogs for Canadians. In today’s environment, there is certainly a risk that the United States could pause or even cancel the program.
A Canada-only program could run in parallel to the NEXUS program, using all of the existing infrastructure at Canadian airports and the existing Canadian background-check system, excluding only the American side of the application process. In turn, successful applicants could receive the same benefits NEXUS members receive in Canada, though without the benefits in the United States. For Canadians who fly mainly domestically or overseas, it would be just as useful as NEXUS with a much simpler application process.
The benefits go far beyond expediting the application process and allowing Canadians to opt out of U.S. databases. Unlike NEXUS, a Canada-only program could be open to nationals of many other countries who travel frequently to Canada for business, research, or family reasons. This is common in many other countries, including Britain, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and even the United States. The United States allows certain foreign nationals to gain express entry to their country, but Canada cannot grant the same thing because the U.S. limits access to the NEXUS program to North American citizens and permanent residents only. That constraint has nothing to do with Canadian security, and everything to do with American policy preferences.
At a moment when Canada is actively seeking to diversify trade and deepen ties beyond the United States, this is a missed opportunity. Making it easier and more predictable for trusted travellers from Europe, East Asia, or other key partner regions to enter Canada would be a small but meaningful step toward reducing friction in precisely the relationships we say we want to strengthen.
A Canada-only program could also allow for opening additional enrolment centres so that Canadians don’t need to travel to a major airport with extensive U.S. air service to gain approval. Processing times could be reduced and additional interview slots created if desired. These choices would all be in Canadian hands, rather than determined by U.S. government policy.
None of this requires abandoning NEXUS. A Canada-only program could co-exist alongside it. Those who want seamless cross-border travel with the United States could continue to apply for NEXUS. But Canadians who don’t travel regularly to the U.S. and overseas citizens who travel regularly to Canada will finally have an option suited to them.
Border friction is not just an annoyance. It has a real economic cost, multiplied millions of times a year. Reducing that cost for trusted travellers is one of the simplest productivity gains available to the government. It maintains and, ideally, even improves security by reducing the time that’s needed to be spent on travellers who have already been subject to an extensive background check and deemed to be low-risk, while enabling a greater focus on those who are higher-risk. They allow resources to be focused where they are needed most.
A Canada-only trusted-traveller program is long overdue. It is feasible with minimal new policy or infrastructure, supportive of Canada’s global economic diversification, and entirely consistent with maintaining strong border security. Most of all, it reflects the basic principle that access to Canadian services should be governed, first and foremost, by Canada.