MEXICO CITY — Canadians looking to fly to Mexico are expected to find themselves with more options in the coming weeks and months, as the two countries are expected to sign a new agreement this week increasing the number of routes heading north-south.
That announcement, coupled with expectations that Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and U.S. President Barack Obama are to announce an expansion of express customs lanes, has put travel at the forefront of Harper’s agenda for Tuesday.
The details are expected to be announced when Harper meets with Pena Nieto at the presidential palace one day before U.S. President Barack Obama will join in for what’s dubbed the Three Amigos summit.
It was earlier this month that cabinet gave the go-ahead for a renewed agreement with the Mexicans on air travel. The order-in-council, dated Feb. 6, updates an agreement first signed in 1961.
Once signed, it’s expected to reverse a decline in the number of flights between Canada and Mexico. The decline started after Canada enacted new visa rules on Mexican travellers in 2009.
According to a report from the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, Canadian airlines have cut or reduced planned routes because “it is virtually impossible for a Mexican to arrange to travel to Canada on short notice.” Some of those travellers have wanted to come to Canada for business, the report says, others want to catch a cheaper flight to Asia.
The visa rules have helped cut the number of bogus refugee claims from Mexico.
A government official speaking in advance of Harper’s visit, and on condition of anonymity, said the prime minister had no intention of lifting the visa requirements while in Mexico. That doesn’t preclude the government from making some movement on the visa issue, which the Mexican government is adamant should be lifted.
Harper arrived in Mexico City Monday afternoon to an official welcoming party.
His welcome was short-lived as he was whisked to Chapultepec Park in the capital city to lay a ceremonial wreath at the “Monumento a los Ninos Herose.” The six-column, semi-circular monument commemorates the last stand of six cadets near the end of the Mexican-American War in 1847.
The park is also home to a 37-foot totem pole that the Diefenbaker government donated in 1960.
