CBSA reduces hours at three ports of entry in the Southeast

CBSA announced last week on social media platform X that it will be reducing hours at 12 ports of entry in Manitoba, three of which are in the Southeast.

The border ports of South Junction, Piney, and Tolstoi will have their hours reduced on Jan. 6.

“I would have no idea what their plans are because they won’t tell us beforehand,” said RM of Piney Reeve Wayne Anderson, noting this happens every two years or so. “They never even consulted with the communities when they (restructured) the hours they just announced them with little or no notice.”

Piney’s new hours will be 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (down from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.); South Junction from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. (down from 8 a.m. to midnight); and Tolstoi from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. (down from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.).

“Today’s announcement, determined in collaboration with the United States, will enhance overall security for both countries. It will allow the CBSA to use its resources more efficiently by deploying officers at busier ports of entry,” read a statement from the CBSA’s website.

The CBSA stated the ports were processing two or less cars or trucks per hour and that travellers will have to find alternative crossings within a 100 km radius.

“Well even one or two cars is very important to our community. To them one or two cars means nothing. Places like Windsor, where there’s thousands of cars per hour, they’re comparing that to us is not a fair comparison,” said Anderson.

“A lot of people work shift work across the border. In Piney, we have many dual citizens so they work at New Flyer Industries…and to a bureaucrat in Ottawa one or two cars passing with shift workers coming back means nothing to them, but it means a lot to us,” he added.

In response to a notice of possible border hours reduction or closure of ports of entry, Provencher MP Ted Falk sent a letter to the Minister of Public Safety Dominic LeBlanc. The RM of Piney got a response on Nov. 1 from the CBSA that no ports will be closed, but the letter didn’t mention a reduction in hours.

“People have to be vocal and talk to people in government and tell them what they need and what we expect of them…I think it’s a poorer way of trying to save money and they’re doing things that they don’t fully understand,” said Anderson.