OTTAWA (CP) - Same-day car travel from the United States fell to its lowest monthly level on record in February, even before the United States plans to adopt onerous ID card requirements at the border.
While Statistics Canada says a record 547,000 Canadians travelled to overseas countries during the month - a 1.5 per cent gain from January and the third straight monthly increase - it reports same-day car travel from the United States to Canada fell below the 1.2-million mark for the first time ever.
The statistics come as Canadian authorities are voicing their concerns over U.S. plans to introduce identification requirements for cross-border travellers by 2007.
Politicians and business leaders say they fear the passport or other ID requirements will discourage casual cross-border traffic and slow trade between the two countries.
The estimated 1.1 million overnight trips taken by U.S. residents to Canada in February was the lowest monthly level in almost nine years.
In total, only 2.4 million U.S. residents took trips to Canada during the month, down 2.3 per cent from the month before and the lowest month on record since May 1979; Canadians, in turn, made fewer than 3.2 million trips to the United States during February, down 7.1 per cent from January.
The Canadian dollar was worth 87.0 US cents on average in February, up 0.7 per cent over January; the loonie also gained against the euro, the British pound sterling and the Japanese yen.