Here's a little article I wrote for our Bellevue Sail and Power Squadron newsletter Bellviews that explains the situation to the best of my knowledge after speaking to several CANPASS officials this week. CANPASS Update The CANPASS office has been flooded with calls since a Canada Customs press release on April 4th indicated that the CANPASS Private Boat program has been reinstated. The press release hinted at, but did not make clear, that stricter enforcement will apply to entry under the program however. Previously, the skipper of a pleasure craft could simply call the CANPASS hotline up to four hours prior to arriving in Canada, obtain a reporting number, and be free to land or anchor wherever they wished. Apparently this was a rather lax interpretation of the rules and the first landing in Canada should be made at an approved dock or marina. I spoke to several CANPASS officials who endeavored to explain the rules to me. As is common in many businesses, the head office and the field seem to have a slightly different understanding of the changes. The skipper should still call CANPASS up to four hours in advance, giving a destination and ETA. This destination must be one of the approved CANPASS points of entry. Unfortunately, CANPASS is restricting the original list and the new one is not yet ready. Right now only a designated Canada Customs port of entry is formally acceptable (see April issue of Bellviews - note that Bedwell Harbour will open this year on May 1st), but you might suggest your intended destination dock and find out if that is on their list when you report in. If you arrive at your ETA, and there is no official on the dock, you are free to leave and continue on. If you arrive early, the same rules apply, but you must wait for your ETA before you can leave. If an official is on the dock in either case, they will give you instructions. The intention of this system is that if Canada Customs decides to inspect you, and they will definitely be doing more inspections than in the past, they will come to your arrival dock at the time you specified. This is why you cannot leave until your ETA if you arrive early. If you arrive late, or on time but the dock is full, you should call CANPASS and request instructions. There is no official guidance as to how much you could miss the ETA by, but the person I spoke to estimated that about fifteen minutes would be acceptable, although if I were to arrive even a few minutes past my ETA and there was no official at the dock, I would call CANPASS anyway just to be on the safe side. The representative I spoke with also recommended requesting the clearing official's badge number so that you have a record of having spoken to someone either dockside or with CANPASS who approved your leaving. With the stricter enforcement there is less advantage to using the program than in the past, but it will still streamline the entry for CANPASS holders. If you have already received a reporting number via CANPASS when you arrive at the designated dock, the most likely thing to happen is that you will be simply be able to continue on your way, rather than having to wait for further processing or inspection. Hopefully the extended list of acceptable docks will soon be made available as well. If you don't have a CANPASS reporting number, your only option is to go to a Canada Custom's point of entry, call on the dock phone if no official is there, and wait for someone to arrive. You cannot make an "appointment" as with CANPASS. Since it can take up to two months to become enrolled in the program due to the background checks required, and as existing memberships have been extended for six months, Canada Customs recommends that current CANPASS members not drop their enrollment - we will keep ours. Since the program appears to be somewhat in flux and there is some confusion as to its implementation, the safest approach is still to call CANPASS at (888)226-7277 prior to your trip to get the latest status, and plan to arrive early at the dock to avoid the crowds. Jennifer Hamilton M/V Dirona Seattle, WA -----Original Message----- From: Faure, Marin [mailto:marin.faure@boeing.com] Sent: Thursday, April 11, 2002 9:24 AM To: 'Trawler World Mail List' Subject: TWL: Re: Canpass I was just informed that the Canpass program was reinstated earlier this month. That's great news, particularly for those of us who fly floatplanes and have boats up near the border. The wording does not appear to have changed substantially. The requirement that you arrive after your phone call at a "government approved dock or marina" was there before, as I recall. But in all the times that we've used our Canpass, we were never once required to actually do this even when we were prepared to. We were always cleared direct to the bay, marina, or harbor we wanted to go to. I suspect this practice will continue, although I would not be surprised if Canadian Customs is more stringent with first-time users now. The first time we used ours we were prepared to go to a "government approved" facility, but in fact we didn't have to even then. Since obtaining our Canpass, we have never been inspected once, either in the plane or in the boat. _________________________________________ C. Marin Faure GB36 "La Perouse" Bellingham