Post-9/11 Canada-U.S. Border Policy and the Trucking Industry: How Deliberation Councils Can Strengthen the Business-Government Relationship and Promote More Informed and Effective Policymaking

Abstract

This paper examines Canada‟s post-9/11 border policymaking regime and its effects on the Canadian trucking industry and the larger Canada-U.S. trade relationship. More specifically, it examines post-9/11 policy initiatives such as the Smart Border Accord and the Security and Prosperity Partnership and aims to understand why such policies were unable to mitigate the economic losses being incurred by the trucking industry in the face of tight border controls and a newly securitized Canada-U.S. frontier. In this context, particular attention is devoted to the study of business-government relations and their role in the post-9/11 policymaking process. The degree to which the Canadian trucking industry was involved in the border-related policymaking process is investigated and special focus is given to whether or not the industry was included in private-sector consultations. This paper concludes that post-9/11 border policies were ineffective both in facilitating cross-border trade and mitigating economic losses to the trucking industry precisely because they failed to incorporate private-sector interests in the policymaking process; ineffective consultations, strong international forces, and a weak policymaking structure which failed to institutionalize private-sector interests were all to blame for the trucking industry‟s exclusion from the policymaking process. Deliberation councils are presented as a solution for improving the business-government relationship and enhancing the policymaking process with respect to the Canada-U.S. border.