Frequent travellers were dealt an unwelcome surprise on February 22 when Canada’s four largest airports—Toronto Pearson, Vancouver YVR, Calgary YYC and Montréal-Trudeau—confirmed the sudden suspension of NEXUS and Global Entry services. The move, communicated through airport social-media feeds and website notices, followed the partial shutdown of the U.S. federal government that began on February 14 after lawmakers in Washington failed to pass a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding bill. With U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers on furlough, trusted-traveller kiosks for pre-clearing passengers heading south of the border went dark. Vancouver International explicitly cited the “ongoing partial U.S. Government shutdown” as the cause, while Calgary airport urged passengers to arrive early and download the CBP Mobile Passport app as a stop-gap. The outage has immediate operational repercussions. Before the shutdown, roughly 16 % of cross-border passengers at Pearson and 12 % at Vancouver used NEXUS each day; without the dedicated lanes, average processing times ballooned from 10 minutes to 45 minutes during peak morning banks. Airlines report higher no-show rates from business travellers unwilling to risk delays. For Canadian companies, the timing is awkward. Many executives are travelling frequently to U.S. hubs ahead of the joint North American supply-chain summit in April. Immigration counsel recommend carrying additional documentation—such as detailed meeting agendas and proof of Canadian residence—to minimise secondary inspection times while trusted-traveller programs remain unavailable. DHS officials said Global Entry will stay suspended until Congress passes a funding bill. If the impasse stretches past March 15, CBSA warns that the Canadian NEXUS enrolment centres—already grappling with a 14-month application backlog—could face another surge of rescheduling requests, jeopardising Ottawa’s plan to clear the queue by year-end.
Source: Global News
