Latest / Kvetch & Release / MP Masse pushes U.S. to reduce 'challenging' dog-rabies regulations for Canadians

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MP Masse pushes U.S. to reduce 'challenging' dog-rabies regulations for Canadians · Kvetch & Release

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  We've been hearing a lot about dogs. Why is that? Well, the
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  United States had this plan for regulations for dogs that were crossing the border to
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  have to get veterinary notes, have to comply with federal legislation and paperwork that
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  they were going to roll out, and it was going to cause a lot
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  of problems for people here, especially in cross border communities like ours. And
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  one person who has been pushing back against that, trying to get rid of
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  this red tape for our dogs is Windsor West Member of Parliament Brian Massey,
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  who joins me right now live on the phone. Brian, How you doing
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  good? Thanks? How are you today? Doing really well? Thank you.
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  So you're at one of these big legislative conferences that you go to with
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  your federal counterparts on the other side of the border there, and you decided
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  to bring up the dog issue. How is it being responded to? We're
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  really good in terms of We're in right now Columbus, Ohio, and I'm
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  part of just a two person delegation here. This is the Council of State
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  Government, so this is like the statewide representative across the United States. Congress
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  congressional members and Senate members and as well as provincial parliaments across Canada. And
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  so this morning we did get a motion of support calling for Canada have an
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  exemption, which was good because I'm just a guest here and so get actually
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  get one of the three resolutions through without being an actual member was really good.
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  It shows the significance of the issue and how important it is. And
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  that was passed, and we're calling for a minimal delay of eighteen months and
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  if not a full exemption for Canada. There were some changes yesterday that took
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  place. It's not as difficult as what it was going to be, but
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  we're still being lumped in with many other places and we don't have a dog
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  ravy problem at all. So basically it's a problem seeking a solution, and
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  it's just unfortunate that we got caught up again in this issue. So if
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  you actually go to the United States, if we don't get this change,
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  you're going to need a readable microchip and have to p are healthy, and
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  there's going to be a form you have to fill out, and you have
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  to make sure the dogs are at least six months of age. May not
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  seem as difficult as it once was because there's other things with a veterinarian specific
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  and so forth. But it still is a barrier. And just as I
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  conclude here, twenty five percent of truck drivers actually have their dogs with them.
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  No yeah, so yeah, so if you have, you know this
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  actually interfering on our regular trade with our trucks and so forth. Even having
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  to check this, it's going to slow traffic down. It's going to slow
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  a competitive advantage of the economy, especially as we've moved to some other practices
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  to pre clear some of those things. See, I thought it was going
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  to be the tourism angle that would have been the big deal on this one,
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  as you know, just making it difficult for cross border travelers who are
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  going across maybe the cottage or something. But the fact that you know,
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  as you say, with truckers they're having dogs with them. If you start
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  impacting trade, lord knows. We saw what happens when you shut down a
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  bridge and you cause delays for it. It really impacts our economic sector absolutely,
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  and the companion animals are important. And on top of that there's also
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  our detector dogs, our service dogs. There's still an issue over accessibility because
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  you can download the forum from the Internet to fill this form out. But
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  if it was a service dog, if you're blind or partially blind, it's
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  going to create another barrier that you're the assistance from. There's a whole slew
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  of things. There's also animals that get treated on both sides of the border,
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  depending upon where you're at. Yeah, if you don't have the proper
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  veterinarian elements. So there's still a lot of anomalies in all of this,
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  and it may seem very innocuous at first, but it's a continued problem that
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  we face trying to extricate ourselves from other countries that are having those issues with
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  the United States and not ourselves. How do we get lumped in with you?
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  I don't know, bad countries. I don't know if I should say
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  that word, but like, how do we're Canada? We're right here?
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  How do we get lumped in with this? It's hard to, you know,
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  to really explain it because I've seen it happen so many times and I'm
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  constantly having to deal with these sidewinder issues as especially on the front line.
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  But that's why I spend so much time. I don't really go to other
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  places to as an MP. I know, I focus on North America primarily
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  to do this rutreach. And that's why I actually, you know, this
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  session of Parliament, I was glad I moved a position from Portland, Oregon.
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  I was supposed to go to here here because when I finish this call,
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  I going on about the Great Lake. But when these things come up,
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  it's just because we get ignored or we get just basically thrown together by
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  bureaucrats in this case, and they don't understand the consequences. And so,
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  you know, very few countries have the same type of trucking involvement. Maybe
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  Mexico and a few other southern other areas would have high degree of trucks,
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  but nothing like Canada and in the United States. And so these bureaucrats probably
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  have no idea that there's so many truckers that actually have their pets with them.
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  And I've actually could complicate the current processes. And for heaven's sake,
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  we're building a brand new bridge to actually increase our expediate our trade. At
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  the same time we're putting in policies like this. And again, we don't
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  have a ravy problem in Canada. That's not us. It's not us.
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  That's some other guys. You know, it's not us, you know,
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  so, uh listen, I understand you're gonna you're gonna take the diplomatic tack
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  with things here and say, maybe they made a mistake, we just got
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  lumped into it. I'm a bit more cynical than you. I'm going to
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  go and give these people like full check marks for their intelligence meters. I
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  think that they probably knew what they were doing here. Am I completely off
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  to think like, is this a way that you know, maybe that they
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  try to get trade things resolved between us will make it a little bit harder
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  on one side and you can deal with it this way, Or am I
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  you know, just off base entirely and this is just, you know,
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  a bureaucratic slip up. I think on this case, you make valid points
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  and they do apply, and they are real. In this case though,
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  this is moving from a COVID policy to this particular state and only gave us
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  a few months to act on in May. But I think it shows the
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  systemic things that we have to face because it's okay to inconvene or trade policy
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  between these two countries just because we want to do whatever the heck we want
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  to do and disrupt all the different agreements that we worked on. It shows
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  that we still are very much times taken for granted. We're lucky though,
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  with the relationships that we have. We have very many elected officials on the
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  US side for all political persuasions that understand the nature of our relationships, not
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  only economically, socially, culturally. And this was this motion that was drafted
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  and created and completed all on the flag basically, and it's very professional.
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  I think I sent you a copy. Was done with a lot of care
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  and sincerity and was unanimous and was considered and deemed for the next stage non
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  controversial. So we have American legislators from all over the Midwest, including Michigan,
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  Ohio, and Illinois and Indiana that have actually supported this unanimously and understand
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  that relationship. So that's where we were leaving to work on it. And
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  that's why I'm working at the state governments, because sometimes in Washington, these
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  things that are decided upon our so forth are done without the type of oversight
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  that they should have. But the consequences on this could be I can even
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  calculate in terms of if we have to continue to go down this road and
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  just to completely throw away all the work that's been done. It's just a
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  little frustrating because I want to work on the offense, not defense. No,
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  I mean for sure. So you say though that you're there right now,
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  as you know, you're not a member of this group. Of course,
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  you're not an American legislature. You're you're you're part of us here in
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  Canada. So do you have to like, are you dressed up like in
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  a Trump or a Kamala shirt to get into the place, Like do they
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  know that you're a Canadian? Are you in a beaver tail and like really
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  showing it off. No, It's been actually fun because they know that the
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  federal menumer coming down here is a big deal for them, and there's really
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  respected. So I'm in a suit even in the heat for that in that
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  we're actually gonna hear at lunchtime, Carl Roe is going to actually speak to
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  us. So that'll be really interesting on that perspective. With all the different
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  things that are taking place, I think everybody's playbook has been thrown out here
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  for the last number of weeks. They hit Yeah, so we're hearing some
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  of that, But I mean, there still is really a serious appreciation.
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  And you know, when I was doing interviews even with you know, what
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  does this mean for auto industry? What does it mean for different things?
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  And what I'm working on is to be prepared to take advantage of whatever situation
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  takes place politically over here. And so I'm working with everybody, but I'm
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  also too, as I'm planning on if they swing in different directions on different
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  things, how do we take advantage of that for our own benefit, in
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  our own relationship amongst two nations. But obviously primarily you know how this windsor
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  West and how's windsor Essex, and you know, take advantage of whatever political
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  swing takes place. And so that's what I'm partly doing and why I focus
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  my efforts on these things, because there's this issue that may seem mundane,
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  but it is actually very important and could affect auto parts that are getting to
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  our new EV battery plant because trucks are now delayed more or you know,
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  you know, basically the drivers cannot even have their their companion aims with them
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  when they're traveling. You know, some of them are going to as far
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  as Texas and back. You know, I want to change track just a
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  little bit here we're talking about you know, trade and auto parts, and
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  you know, we don't know what's going to happen in the US with the
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  upcoming election. But if President Trump wins, he has already said he's getting
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  rid of the EV subsidies on day one, which according to our legislation up
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  here, would mean that all of our subsidies would be gone on I guess
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  day two most likely is how it would work out, because we said that
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  once they get rid of THEIRS, ours would follow. Are you concerned about
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  a Trump win in that regard losing the subsidies and all the effort that we're
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  doing to try to build out a brand new supply chain. So I wouldn't
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  tie our relationship with what the US does on THEIRS at this point in time,
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  because we're building plants, we've made arrangements, and the next level of
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  subsidies that we have for these plants will be based on production. So it's
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  a very naive And this is why I always want an auto policy position to
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  take that we should just automatically do something. Because the US does that,
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  we actually might have a window of opportunity to create more evs. What people
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  forget at times, is that we are the only G seven country that actually
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  has the full recipe to create an electric battery. We have all those materials
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  ourselves. Nobody else has that, so we have a natural advantage from our
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  resources, and so I would instead be taking the counterpoint is to examine the
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  situation to see if actually we can capitalize on more manufacturing and more distribution of
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  EV vehicles, because even though they're declined a little bit in terms of the
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  percentage point in recent year, they still are exponentially growing and we are still
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  going to have consumers and customers across massive amounts of markets. The California is
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  the fifth largest economy in the world, and that's going to continue to actually
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  happen. So I wouldn't be reactionary. What I would do is actually what
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  I am doing is I'm planning on how to modify an auto strategy based upon
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  the political headwinds and the rhetoric, because I would hate to have then just
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  have all these building of these plants and subsidies and so forth, and then
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  just on a whim decide because of Donald Trump or anybody else, to abandon
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  our clean energy policies, our jobs, and all that massive amounts of investment
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  because our subsidies switch over from being the infrastructure and the physical elements to being
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  only available for battery products and real work that's tangible done by the hands of
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  Windsor and ESS's residents. And that's what I don't want to give up arbitrarily,
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  and so that's why I've been trying to get the government to do a
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  better auto policy, because we shouldn't just be reactionary to something like that.
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  Well, we're going to see how it all unfolds. We know that Ford
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  just flipped its EV production up in Oakville to internal combustion engine again, so
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  that's a little bit worrisome. But again, as you said, I mean
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  this, there could be an opportunity because if we are the ones pumping out
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  EV's down here, that means that we'd be really one of the big ones
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  that's pushing into the market. We also just saw earlier today. I don't
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  know if you heard, but Buick has just pushed off the production of an
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  electric vehicle as well, their first one, which was supposed to be start
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  production next year. So the industry is in flux. It's always in flux.
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  You've been talking about the need for an auto policy for hell, Brian,
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  as long as I know you, I'm thirty five and I think I
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  met you when I was ten. Yeah, exactly as long as the bridge
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  and in the half of time for the urban park. But you know,
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  I just think that we need to be flexible in this day and age.
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  Nimble is more important than really being ideologically caught on one thing or the other.
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  And if you remember the old days too, General Motors actually went through
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  a hybrid system where they had the most hybrids and they actually moved out of
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  that market for a while and then went back in they actually had I mean,
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  I showed who killed the electric car back in two thousand and four,
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  two thousand and five at the Palace Old Palace Theater in terms of electric vehicles.
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  So I just think we need to be nimble and flexible and have some
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  strategies in place as pillars to deal with it. Because if we do that,
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  then I think we're going to be able to be at a better place
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  than we are meet the consumer where they want to be met. It becomes
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  easier to get the sale at that point. Hey, Brian, have a
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  lot of fun down there at the conference. Try to go and get a
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  selfie with Carl Rove. That'd be fun. I think I might try that.
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  I'm actually on my way home after the afternoon session, so but yes,
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  it's been really good and made some really good relationships, so I appreciate
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  that. And Compus is really a beautiful place, you know, it's not
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  far from home, and it was a good decision to go here than to
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  Portland, Oregon, because we're getting results and I'm I'm just happy to get
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  a motion passed when I'm not even a member of the place. Hey,
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  you're working for your constituents in another country. I don't know if you have
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  to put yourself on the Foreign Lobby Registry, but check into them, Okay.
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  Hey, Brian, thanks so much for your time. Thank you,
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  Thanks, good bye, cheers. Brian Massey is our Member of Parliament for Windsor West