A local politician has helped with pushing back on proposed changes for dog owners crossing the border from Canada at the 78th Midwestern Legislative Conference Annual Meeting.
Windsor West MP Brian Masse, who also serves as Canada-United States Inter-Parliamentary Association Vice-Chair, helped passed a binational motion at the meeting held this week in Columbus, Ohio.
The motion calls for the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to implement an 18-month delay to the proposed regulation change for Canada, and that they further consider a permanent exemption.
As of August 1, the United States changed their dog importation regulations and Canadian dog owners will be facing a series of new requirements to get dogs into America.
Some of these would make it impossible for Canadians to get emergency care for their pets, bring across their service dogs with ease, or travel with their dogs if paperwork wasn't filled out in advance.
On Monday, the CDC changed their requirements to saying that "as long as the dog has been in a low-risk or rabies-free country for the last six months, it can cross the border with just an import form that can be completed online on the day of travel."
But Masse says this change isn't enough for many Canadian dog owners and travelers, and that's why the bipartisan group of legislators is working to bring Canada into parity with the United States.
"We're calling for a minimal delay of 18 months, if not a full exemption for Canada. There were some changes that took place and it's not as difficult as what it was going to be. But we're still being lumped in with many other places and we don't have a dog rabies probably at all. So basically it's a problem seeking a solution," he said.
He says for many people in Windsor and other cross border communities these changes would likely stop all same-day travel with a pet.
"If it was a service dog that's blind or partially blind it's going to create another barrier, and there's also animals that get treated on both sides of the border depending on where you're at. So there's still a lot of anomalies in all of this and it may seem very innocuous at first, but it's a continued problem that we face trying to extricate ourselves from other countries that are having those issues with the United States and not ourselves."
The CDC's list of countries that are considered high risk for rabies includes a number of popular vacation destinations like Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Thailand and Vietnam.
Masse says for Canada to be associated with these changes despite being a rabies-free country doesn't make sense, and it could even impact trade between the two countries.
"We get ignored, or just rules thrown together by bureaucrats in this case. They don't understand the consequences, these bureaucrats probably have no idea that there's so many truckers that actually have their pets with them and that actually could complicate the processes. And for heavens sake we're building a brand new bridge to actually increase or expediate our trade at the same time we're putting in policies like this," he said.
Last week, Masse wrote a letter, co-signed by many of his colleagues on the All-Party Border Caucus, supporting the federal government's call for Canada to be exempt from this regulation as Canada is a rabies-free country sharing the same status as the United States.
- with files from AM800's The Dan MacDonald Show
