OTTAWA – Mexican Ambassador to Canada, Francisco Barrio Terrazas, said Monday that he trusts that before the end of President Felipe Calderón’s tenure, the Canadian government will do away with the requirement of demanding a visa of Mexican citizens.During an interview on the occasion of the XVIII Canada-Mexico Inter-Parliamentary Meeting, the Ambassador said that the procedures to obtain a Canadian visa have improved considerably.He pointed out that the percentage of Mexican citizens that were denied the visa went down from 25 percent to six, and that the period of time it takes to issue the document decreased by one week on average.Barrio Terrazas noted that after the Canadian government imposed the document on Mexican citizens, the numbers of Mexican visitors to Canada decreased.He said that in 2008, the number of Mexican tourists that visited Canada every year was 250,000, while this year the number was barely over 100,000.He also said that several tourism-oriented businesses and travel agencies have urged the Canadian government to eliminate this requirement because of the decreasing levels of Mexicans visiting the North American country.In related news, José González Morfín, the President of the Senate, stated that the Canadian government’s decision to impose a visa on Mexican citizens is questionable and urged Canada to eliminate it once and for all.Accompanied by a Canadian counterpart, Noel Kinsella, the Mexican senator, said that Mexico has not come to terms with the visa requirement
