Canadian spending in the U.S.

A new report about Canadian spending in the United States. It says: "Canadians making a run to the U.S. border to shop are costing the economy much more than earlier believed, the Bank of Montreal says. "There are already more than 50 million visits to the U.S. by Canadian residents annually," with the number expected to swell with higher duty-free limits starting June. 1, said Doug Porter, the bank's deputy chief economist. "A culmination of factors is likely to unleash a wave of Canadians cross-border shopping this summer in numbers not seen in two decades," he added. This is happening even as the bank assessed the gap between Canadian and U.S. prices for consumer goods has narrowed to 14 percent on average from 20 percent a year ago. Canadian business owners are not pleased that the government is raising the duty-free limit to $200 from $50 for stays longer than 24 hours and to $800 for visits of two days and more. It has been $400 after two days and $750 for seven days away. Generally, most people aren't charged anything extra on same-day shopping trips for groceries, which are duty free, gasoline or goods amounting to less than $100. Since many people don't report everything they've bought, even a "conservative estimate" of 5 percent more in goods drains an added $20 billion a year from the economy, Porter said." Miss Penny Lane says: She loves the Canadians at Palermo because she considers herself a citizen of the world too.