The government has discovered a way to collect more money, charge the Canucks!

Obama proposes fee for Canadian visitors to the U.S.

Canadians visiting the U.S. may soon have to pay for it.

U.S. President Barack Obama is proposing a $5.50 “passenger inspection fee” for Canadians. The proposal is contained in the 2012 draft budget he submitted to Congress on Monday.

Until now, visitors from Canada — as well as from Mexico and selected Caribbean countries — have enjoyed a waiver from the fee. But Obama’s budget blueprint notes that charging the fee to Canadians would add millions to U.S. government coffers and would help offset the costs of increasingly intensive air-passenger inspections.

The charge would apply only to those arriving by air or ship, not private vehicles. That’s likely to please the growing number of Canadian vacationers who drive across the border before flying to their holiday destinations.

According to Statistics Canada, some 16 million Canadians flew into the U.S. in 2009. The $5.50 head tax would add almost US$90 million to U.S. government coffers.