It’s true, 44 American and Canadian agencies have jurisdiction over the border that separates the two countries and it comes at quite a cost. The staggering bureaucracy adds significant cost to the billion dollars worth of goods that crosses the border each and every day.

For example, the average price of a car has $800 of extra cost figured-in because of extra wait-times (up to 300% more processing time per truck-shipment since 2001).

With one in four jobs in Canada directly or indirectly existing to service the auto industry, reducing costs while maximizing security at the border should be one of the top issues on the national Canadian agenda. The North American auto-industry is so integrated that the parts in the vehicle that you drive have likely crossed the border seven times during production.

Perhaps the federal government should look into further integration and harmonization of certain agencies to allow more efficient communications and data transfer to facilitate the transfer of goods while maintaining tight security at our border.

h/t: G&M, CITA