An alternative to Nexus? AB senator calls for Canada-run airport fast-track system

With fewer Canadians travelling to the United States, an Alberta senator is urging Ottawa to look into creating a Canada-only program that would help travellers move more quickly through airport security.

Sen. Paula Simons brought forward a motion in the Senate last fall that would urge the federal government to establish a trusted traveller program if it is approved.

Speaking with CBC News, Simons found it “unusual” for a country to contract out its airport security fast-pass system to a different sovereign nation.

“We've just sort of been piggybacking on the Nexus process using it as a proxy," she said in the interview.

Some Canadian airports offer dedicated security lanes for verified travellers, allowing them to pass through screening more quickly.

READ MORE: StatCan: Canadian travel to the U.S. down 31% by car, 19% by air

These travellers have completed thorough background checks, so they don’t need to go through the same level of security screening as most passengers.

Currently, the only way for regular travellers to qualify as verified is by enrolling in the Nexus program, which is jointly administered with the United States.

To join Nexus, Canadians must be interviewed by both Canadian and U.S. border officials.

However, since 2023, Canadians have had to go to the U.S. to complete the interview, whereas before the pandemic, joint interviews were held in Canada.

The program proposed by Simons would not offer all the same benefits as Nexus, such as expedited entry through U.S. customs.

Still, she argues that it’s practical for Canada to create its own verified traveller program that does not depend on the U.S.

“For Canadians who are not interested in traveling to the United States or have stopped traveling to the United States as much as they did in the past, it would be an option," she told CBC.

The Parliamentary Budget Office released a report last week estimating that Simons’ proposed program would cost about $7 million over five years after accounting for expenses and application fees.

According to the report, the application fee would likely be around $50 per person.

Simons countered that the program could pay for itself, with a somewhat higher fee, noting that the Nexus application costs $120 USD.

The U.S. has its own verified traveller program, TSA PreCheck, which is separate from Nexus.

Simons' proposal, notably, has the backing of the Canadian Airports Council.

“We would like the Verified Traveller Program to operate as a true domestic trusted traveller program, that is owned and controlled by Canada," Monette Pasher, the council's president, said in a statement to CBC.

Transborder travel drops

Transborder travel continued to weaken in December 2025, with a sharp drop in the number of trips Canadian residents made to and from the U.S., according to Statistics Canada.

Canadians made 1.3 million automobile return trips from the U.S. that month, a decline of 30.7 per cent compared with the same period in 2024, according to the agency's monthly travel figures, which were released Jan. 12

That total was unchanged from November, when cross-border car travel was down 28.6 per cent year over year. December’s results extended the trend to 12 straight months of annual declines.

Air travel from the U.S. also continued to fall, with Canadian return trips dropping 18.7 per cent in December to 470,700.

In contrast, return air travel from overseas destinations rose 10.4 per cent to 1.1 million trips.

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