DETROIT – You bet! Ask the casinos! But all puns aside, any time our elected officials don’t make wise spending decisions, it comes down to the same results that each of us experience in our own personal budgets – the dollars that were squandered thoughtlessly are not available to make desired, or in some case necessary purchases.
Bad decision making is why we find ourselves where we are today as the Michigan legislature works overtime on a last ditch misguided effort to fix the snowballing budget problems that they themselves have created by making short sited & non-strategic decisions over the past few years.
While there are lots of examples that are not security related, one that security people in Michigan need to be aware of is WHTI & REAL-ID. While the Detroit region and the state of Michigan is home to 40 percent of the overall trade between Canada and the United States, we are not paying attention to the dollars and sense reasons to combine two federal mandates and taking the leadership role that Michigan should in this country on this issue. If we don’t, it will only make sure that we inconvenience our citizens and ultimately further jeopardize an already faltering economy.
For a bit of background, WHTI is the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, a well meaning but fundamentally misguided attempt at the federal level to make sure we have the right people coming into the country, and stopping those that mean us harm, and doing this primarily through the current instrument of authentication, the passport. This is by any measure an admirable goal, however, in the security world, there has to be a balance of practicality with safety, and using an old school tool in a high tech society is not an effective solution. None of us responsible for business systems today would dream of using such antiquated means of authenticating someone – it isn’t even possible – before granting access to corporate resources over a network.
I demonstrate the concept of safety with access with the analogy of a house – you want a safe house, but you also want an accessible one. A really safe house would be one with no doors or windows, but it would not be an accessible one. The same goes for our borders, and the economy that is supported by all that cross country traffic.
Less than 40 percent of US citizens have passports, and if WHTI is implemented as currently projected, it will not only significantly reduce the amount of US citizens traveling to Canada, but more importantly, it will affect a similar number of Canadians traveling to and spending money with US businesses (translated – Michigan businesses). The amount of spontaneous travel between the countries is also sure to be decimated, as a two month wait for a passport is the general rule of thumb. 2005 border traffic is estimated at 32 million trips from the US to Canada and 38 million trips from Canada to the US. Canadian spending has increased 39% in the last ten years, and visitors from Canada spent roughly $10 Billion in the US when visiting. Some projections of economic impact to the US are estimating $650 million lost from fewer Canadians traveling to the use once WHTI is implemented. As a growing sector of our economy, Canadian tourism and traffic should be encouraged as much as possible. Complicating our border crossing further and increasing difficulty is not going to further enhance the Michigan economy.
Despite numerous conversations on this topic in both Canada and the US, and the forward thinking of groups like the BESTT coalition and others, Michigan leadership continues to focus more on local short sited issues, and less on taking a national leadership role in areas where we are clearly the ones to do so. Michigan, instead of still vacillating on this issue, should have already surpassed the efforts of other border states, such as Washington, who have less to lose, yet have already taken action to ensure that their citizens and border traffic are as unencumbered as possible by developing joint border agreements with their local Canadian counterparts to smooth border crossings both directions.
Taking a parallel track is REAL-ID Act, the DHS mandated requirement of having a drivers license that can function as a national ID card and provides for the sharing of data between states. Michigan is going to be required to comply with this act, and if it doesn’t begin asserting it’s unique position relating to border traffic at the federal level, we will end up spending money on a flawed ID system for our citizens while also being deprived of a significant revenue source from our friends north of the border. This would be termed a lose-lose deal, one that we need to have our elected officials avoid at all possible costs. It will be hard to tax our way out of this type of predicament.
Yes, when you think about it, our legislators can make a lot of decisions in areas as far removed as security seems to be from budget and tax issues, and yet have profound effects on our economy. Those decisions, and the ways that they choose to prioritize those decisions, are going to continue to make life in this fair state measurably different – good or bad.
For more information, or to get involved, click on BestCoalition.Com
This column was written by Hans Erickson, CIO of the Detroit Regional Chamber and a board member of Michigan InfraGard. a>>
