In this issue :

FDFA Annual Convention

FDFA Semi-Annual Meeting - October 2009

FDFA Semi-Annual Meeting – May 2010

FDFA Upcoming Annual Convention Dates

New FDFA Member Announcement

Key FDFA Dates: 2008, 2009 and 2010

Passport Update – Enhanced Driver’s License Program

Credit Card Issue Affecting Retail Merchants

Political Uncertainty on Parliament Hill

New CBSA Director

Overview on Recent FDFA Government Relations Activities

Future Communiqué Dates

FDFA Annual Convention – Vancouver, BC – January 2009

The FDFA Convention is just around the corner!! We are looking forward to seeing all of our colleagues and special guests at the Pan Pacific this upcoming January.

When you arrive at the convention, you will receive upon registration your convention directory, providing each of you with key contact information for all FDFA members, the  convention agenda, sponsor listings, and the “Who’s Here” directory (listing all convention delegates by company or store name).

For any questions pertaining to your registration, events to attend, FDFA operator contact information, trade floor questions, etc., do not hesitate to contact:

Laurie Karson at lkarson@fdfa.ca, Allison Boucher at aboucher@fdfa.ca or Rose Perusko at frontierdutyfree@rogers.com

Also, for the Child Find Silent Auction being held at the Welcome Reception on Sunday, January 11th, if you would like to make a donation via a product, please contact Allison Boucher directly. All proceeds are going to Child Find Canada http://www.childfind.ca . If you are looking to bid on items at the auction, you will find some fantastic items available for bidding. The FDFA would like to thank all of our supplier and vendors thus far who have been so generous in their donations.

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FDFA Semi-Annual Meeting – October 2009 Update – Hotel Identified

With the upcoming FDFA Semi-Annual meeting set to take place in Ottawa in October 2009, the FDFA Board of Directors has chosen a hotel to host the FDFA meeting for our land border duty free delegates. The Board has agreed on the Chateau Laurier Hotel in downtown Ottawa.

The meeting dates are:
October 20th, 2009 – Board meeting
October 21st, 2009 – FDFA Operator’s Meeting
October 21st, 2009 (EVENING) – MP Reception for duty free industry
October 22nd, 2009 – Workshop – Subject matter tbd

For those supplier members unfamiliar with the FDFA Semi-Annual meeting, this meeting is exclusive to the land border duty free operator’s with invited special guests. The purpose of this meeting is to discuss industry specific business issues.

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FDFA Semi-Annual Meeting
May 2010 Update – Location Identified

The FDFA recently sent a meeting location survey to all land border duty free operator’s regarding the May 2010 semi-annual meeting. We provided our operator’s with specific location site options to choose from. As such, the majority of our members chose Las Vegas, Nevada.

Therefore, the May 2010 meeting will be held in Las Vegas, Nevada. The FDFA will organize the meeting location, workshops, meeting logistics, etc. However, we will allow our members to choose their own hotel at their discretion, as opposed to other years, where the FDFA identifies the hotel site. The specific dates in May are yet to be determined.

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FDFA Upcoming Annual Convention Dates:

After the Vancouver 2009 Annual Convention comes to a close, the next FDFA Annual Convention will be held in November 2010 in Niagara Falls, Ontario. The purpose of the 22 month break between conventions is based on a FDFA decision to move the convention dates back to a November timeline.

The FDFA has also secured a multi-year annual convention contract in Niagara Falls at the Hilton Niagara from 2011 to November 2013. Based on this multi-year contract, we are able to offer our members with competitive hotel pricing and many special events. Please see listing of full annual convention dates:

November 2010 – Sheraton on the Falls Hotel – FDFA’s 25th Anniversary
Sunday, November 14th to Wednesday, November 17th
*November 25th is U.S. Thanksgiving
*November 11th is Remembrance Day and Memorial Day

November 2011 – Hilton Niagara
Sunday, November 13th to November 16th
*November 24th is U.S. Thanksgiving
*November 11th is Memorial and Remembrance Day

November 2012 – Hilton Niagara
Sunday, November 11th to Wednesday, November 14th
• November 22nd is U.S. Thanksgiving
• November 11th is Remembrance Day
• U.S. Veteran’s day is observed on November 12th this year

November 2013 – Hilton Niagara
Sunday, November 17th to Wednesday, November 20th
*November 28th is U.S. Thanksgiving
*November 11th is Remembrance and Memorial Day

We look forward to seeing everyone in future years at the FDFA convention.

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New FDFA Member Announcement:

We are pleased to announce new supplier members as of 2008 to the Frontier Duty Free Association.

New Members - 2008

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Key FDFA Dates to Remember for 2008, 2009 and 2010:

Below you will find three charts outlining key dates to remember for both operator and supplier members. Within the charts, it will outline if a specific initiative or event is meant for only land border operators or all delegates. These detailed charts provide key dates pertaining to FDFA audits, events, proxy deadlines, etc.

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Passport Update – Enhanced Driver’s License Program throughout North America:

Most of our members are aware, that based on US legislation, the passport requirement for anyone entering into the U.S. via land border will come into affect in June 2009. Throughout the last several years, the FDFA has worked with both their US and CND colleagues to ensure alternative documents to the passport would be in affect coinciding with the passport date implementation.

The Enhanced Driver’s License Program, which was originally test piloted in B.C. and Washington State has been considered an acceptable technology in the U.S. and Canada. The EDL program allows driver’s to simply obtain a technology using Radio Frequency Identification Tags (RFIT) and other measures that make forgery more difficult, EDL’s are encoded with the proper information to replace passports at border crossings. Furthermore, the EDL is less expensive and easier to tote around than a traditional passport

As per the outline below, the EDL program is slowly being implemented in Canada and the U.S. The FDFA, along with other concerned groups such as TIAC, National US Tour Association, etc. will be meeting over the next several months to discuss lobbying efforts to ensure the EDL program moves at a faster pace to meet the June 2009 deadline. We also understand that the National US Tour Association will be meeting with Obama’s transitional team to discuss the issue at greater length.

Canadian EDL Status

• British Columbia – has a test project with 520 licences issued as of July 2008
• Ontario – government introduced legislation in June 2008 that will allow Ontarians to use enhanced drivers licences (www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/dandv/driver/enhancedcards.htm)
• Quebec – announced plans in July 2008 to introduce a “permis de conduire plus” within the year (http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=49758760-69cc-4b3b-9f0e-4a41f3d3abae&p=1)
• Manitoba – has plans to introduce an enhanced drivers licence by summer 2009 (http://www.gov.ns.ca/news/details.asp?id=20080828004)
• Nova Scotia – as of August 2008, Nova Scotia began looking into an enhanced drivers licence, working with other Atlantic provinces (http://www.gov.ns.ca/news/details.asp?id=20080828004)
• Some are opposed to EDLs – suggest that they are a waste of money and pose a significant threat to privacy - the Ontario or Canadian governments can do to stop U.S. security officials from storing our biometric and other information on parallel databases where Canada's privacy laws do not apply using the RFID chip that is part of the ID card (http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/October2008/20/c7542.html)

American Information
Overview EDL Link: http://www.poweroftravel.org/statistics/pdf/ki_intl_whti_facts03.pdf

About Washington: http://www.dol.wa.gov/about/news/priorities/edl.html
About Michigan: http://www.michigan.gov/sos/0,1607,7-127--186510--,00.html and http://www.rfidnews.org/2008/10/13/michigan-to-issue-enhanced-driver-license
About New York: http://www.nydmv.state.ny.us/edl-main.htm
About Arizona: http://www.azmc.org/story.php?ID=246
About Vermont: http://www.aot.state.vt.us/DMV/LICENSES/LICENSES.htm

There’s this general synopsis from Homeland Security: http://www.dhs.gov/xtrvlsec/crossingborders/gc_1197575704846.shtm.

Also, Texas was expected to also implement an enhanced driver's license program, but the program has been blocked by Texas Gov. Rick Perry, despite a state law authorizing the Texas Department of Public Safety to issue EDLs and a ruling by the state attorney general, Greg Abbott, that Texas' production of EDLs would comply with federal requirements. (http://newspapertree.com/press_releases/270-perry-denies-enhanced-driver-s-license-program)

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Credit Card Issue Affecting Retail Merchants

As a key member of the Retail Council of Canada, the FDFA Operator members are growing more concerned with the current credit card merchant fee increases. As a national member of the RCC, who is currently leading the coalition against these increases to key government officials, we hope to assist RCC in any way possible to raise our concerns over these recent actions.

For more information on this issues, please see a recent article from RCC via their “Stop Sticking it to Us” website. www.retailcouncil.org/news/media/press/2008/pr20081113.asp

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Political Uncertainty on Parliament Hill: Potential Implications on the Tourism Industry

On December 3, 2008 our colleagues at the Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC) released the following news bulletin to their members regarding the recent political uncertainty within the Government of Canada. Please see below the article drafted by Chris Jones,

Release from the Tourism Industry Association of Canada

The leaders of the three federal opposition parties have publicly expressed their intention to bring a motion of non-confidence in the Conservative Government before the House of Commons at the earliest opportunity. The leaders have also petitioned Governor-General Michaelle Jean that should the non-confidence motion pass, she allow them to form a coalition government led temporarily by Liberal leader Stéphane Dion included in which would be New Democratic MPs.

Click here to read more...

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New CBSA Director: Director of Licensing, Export and Accounting Policy Division (LEAP)

Many of our operator members are aware that Joy Aldous recently left the CBSA Duty Free Shop Program for another role within CBSA. As such, a new Director of CBSA has been appointed – Mr. Dan Vrecic.

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) is pleased to announce that as of November 17, 2008, Mr. Dan Vrecic has joined the Border and Compliance Programs Directorate as Director of Licensing, Export and Accounting Policy Division (LEAP).

Dan began his career with the federal government in the GST audit domain 18 years ago after having completed the Bachelor of Commerce programme at the University of Ottawa.  Prior to joining LEAP, Dan was a Project Manager in the CBSA's Enforcement Branch.  Dan resides in Ottawa with his wife and two children.

In his new position, Dan will be responsible for several ongoing program reviews underway in the CBSA including the Duty Free Shop Program Review.  Dan looks forward to meeting and working with all stakeholders to address the challenges facing today's duty free industry.

No picture of Mr. Vrecic has been provided at this time. We are uncertain if Mr. Vrecic will be attending the FDFA Annual Convention; however, a formal FDFA invitation to the convention has been sent to his office and we are awaiting his response.

To contact Mr. Dan Vrecic, please note his e-mail address is as follows: Dan.Vrecic@cbsa-asfc.gc.ca and his direct phone number is: (613) 948-3183.

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Overview on Recent FDFA Government Relations Activities:

Many of our members have seen recent media reports regarding the Canadian duty free industry being reviewed by the CBSA. While the CBSA is in fact reviewing industry standards, procedures and regulations, we have been ensured that this process is meant to improve both the airport and land border duty free industries. The FDFA has formed a Program Review Committee, chaired by Peter Brain of Blue Water Bridge.

We have noted to the press that we have “no comment” on any specifics of the Program Review at this point, since it is ongoing and we are continuing our consultations with CBSA on this matter. The FDFA continues to support the retention of our historical pillars that have been the foundation of our industry.

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Future Communiqué Dates:

With Laurie Karson back from maternity leave, the FDFA Communiqué will now be sent to our members in a consistent fashion. As such, please see the communiqué dates to remember.

• February 18th, 2009 – Post Convention Communiqué
• May 20th, 2009
• August 19th, 2009
• November 11th, 2009

If you have an idea for an article, or would like to tell us about something of interest to all duty free FDFA members, please contact Laurie Karson at lkarson@fdfa.ca. Your feedback is important.

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