Is it work-to-rule again at Canada Customs?
 

Last Monday, I came back home on AC875 from a weekend in Munich.
We arrived on schedule, and ours was one of the first international flights arriving at YUL at that hour (11:45). The customs were just opening, and
almost all booths were staffed.

I recall reading an G&M article earlier this spring about saving money at Customs & Immigration Canada that could cause delays during the peak summer travel season.

I never bring in what is not allowed nor exceed the stated allowance. However, over the last month or so, I am always questioned more than before and even a 1l bottle of whiskey gets scrutinized as it it was something else. Almost always, I am then sent for a secondary inspection where they enjoy going through all my clothing, books and other items of personal nature, asking where I got this and that. I must be a really interesting person. How do you explain otherwise. e.g., a comment of the customs officer about the "high quality" of the towel in my luggage.

Since the EU "unification" and removal of borders within one can almost walk in Europe no questions asked. I really detest being controlled and scrutinized upon return to my country as if I was a suspect or what. They never ask about the passport credentials, and are mostly interested only in liquor and tobacco. I understand that it would be an issue, had I brought in a cargo full of that stuff- but 1 or 2 bottles???

Crossing the border to the US is not as painless as it used to be but I have always carried a passport and that does not bother me as much. They rarely ask about what I carry in. It is more about immigration than customs.

Are we "behind the times", checking a bottle here or a carton of cigarettes there and losing the big picture in the process?

I have not been searched coming into Canada since 1983, and that was from a flight to jamaica where everyone coming back got searched.

I think it must be you... you must be setting off alarm bells or something. :)

not to jinx myself, but i declare down to the penny every time and always go well over my limit and usually double the liquor limit (4 bottles of wine pretty much every time...)...in the last 20 air/land crossings, i have paid once (on a land crossing going through a booth with a trainee).... and only got a secondary once at YYZ when i spent close to 1500 bucks on a 3 day jaunt to London....even then, it was how did you spend soo much, and i started pulling out the goods from my shopping spree....:) mostly stuff that was just GST and PST able...but the guy doing the secondary just said go on your way....i think they smell honesty!

sorry, one more thing...since the senate report noting they should focus on security more than tax collecting, i have noticed that i have been waved through when i thought i was surely going to get the PST and GST treatment....i loved this quote...too bad it was not taken since i would love to be able to bring up some of the wine i have sitting in WA and NY..."The Committee recommends that personal exemptions for travelers from the United States to Canada should be tripled within five years to help customs officers concentrate on security rather than "minor" revenue collection. The Committee feels the lost revenues should be considered an investment."

Montreal is by far the WORST city to deal with Canada Customs in. I've been told that after completing training in Rigaud, Quebec, their first assignment is commonly Dorval. So they're a little more militant and by the book when it comes to collecting duties.

The only times I have been searched or made to pay duties is in Montreal. In Toronto, I ocaasionally bring in more than my limit but I always declare and am waved through and sometimes thanked for my honesty in declaring.

It has been my experience, that they are definitely more vigilant at YUL.

As a rule, I NEVER exceed the stated allowance. Actually, often I do not need to bring in anything most of the time. It goes in waves. For about 2 years, I was not sent to the secondary. It all started this year, maybe because I am travelling more often due to low(er) airfares and hotel prices in Europe, desire to requalify for 2010 SE and HH Gold, and now last but not least to mark my upcoming 55th birthday in September. Sometimes, when I really had nothing to declare, I was sent for the secondary as well.

I am not sure about Dorval. Coming from BGI via YYZ, I was 'inspected' over there by a really stupid woman who did not know where BGI was. Returning on AC875 to YUL last Monday, I was assigned to a pleasant girl (no sexist remark intended in either case) who searched all but at the same time without much interest. To me it looked like 'work to rule' on orders from above. Of course, I was not found guilty of any transgression and was let go quickly.

Interesting - I have always found the reverse to be the case. All my nasty experiences with Customs have been at YYZ ; YUL I have generally found to be pretty reasonable. I wouldn't say the difference was so much one of stringency as that the YYZ people are more likely to be rude or to ask completely off-the-wall questions. So maybe in a certain sense YUL are more 'by-the-book'.

I'd say yes. It is interesting to look back on the 1920s and the days of Canada > U.S. liquor bootlegging &c. Now it's Canadians trying to sneak an extra bottle of good French wine into Canada. :p

ah...the allowance is just duty free...you make it seem as if the law says you can not bring more back...you can bring as much as you want back...you just have to pay......hell my brother brings in thousands of $$ of fine wine and pays full duty.....the guys know him at the crossing and just sends him in to pay..thankfully, his province does not kick you in the teeth like Ontario and Qubec does with wine...well, not as hard...GST and PST is just the cost of living in Canada he says...

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I think the summer students are back in force.
I flew in to YYZ from Europe yesterday and had a long, useless Q+A session with a kid that looked like he was 11.

Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner!

There is an overall limit even with duty, but it's something like 40 L.

Though, as you say, the SAQ/LCBO "markup" you have to pay on it is obscene, so it's seldom worth paying duty on wine unless you either bought it at a very good price, or it's something like Romanée-Conti that you couldn't get in Canada at any price.

Interesting. Do those of us living in free market provinces have to pay that when entering through YYZ and/or YUL? I've only ever brought back alcohol on flights entering Canada through YYC, and I've never been sent to pay for it.

Michael

just tell them you are dying for a tim hortons coffee....that whatever u had overseas cannot be compared to timmies..... i pull that trick all the time and it works!

It sounds like you're talking about alcohol you've brought in within your duty free exception (or at least cases where they've waived the duty). I'm talking about the duty you pay on alcohol beyond your personal exemption limit.

I think what you pay is determined by your entry point. But for any province, you have to pay duty + GST (in some provinces also PST) + some kind of provincial "mark-up" determined by god knows what factors. I'm pretty sure the AGLC has its own liquor mark-up despite the privatized ('free market') liquor distribution in Alberta, though I don't know how it compares to those in Ontario or Quebec.

TBH I still don't really understand all the bizarre 19th-century laws governing the distribution of alcohol in Canada. I think it may still be technically illegal to transport alcohol between provinces, though obviously they have no way of enforcing that against individuals.