A meeting was held yesterday in Swift Current regarding rumours surrounding Canada - U.S. border crossings in the region.
Southwest Saskatchewan representatives from various RMs, Towns, and the City of Swift Current were present, along with MLA for Cypress Hills Doug Steele and the Cypress Hills - Grasslands MP, Jeremy Patzer.
They were discussing the recent rumours of alleged hours of operations reductions, and possibly even closures, at the various border crossings in southwest Saskatchewan.
Swift Current Mayor, Al Bridal, believes that the fact the Canadian Border Services Agency has not revealed anything to either the City of Swift Current, local RMs, or either Patzer or Steele, is reason to be suspicious that something is happening.
"They say 'at this time there is nothing happening', which usually is bureaucratic speak for they're doing something, but they just don't want to tell you," said Bridal. "And so the rumour has it that they're seriously looking at closing some of our border crossings."
The discussion today was going over how this situation may be taking place and shaping itself behind closed doors. The meeting divulged information about how the CBSA is short 2,000 border crossing guards across the country. This is being felt in particular in rural centres, like Willow Creek, Climax, Monchy, and even West Poplar.
Another concern that was brought up is that as far as staffing at the border, there seems to be an overabundance of managers, while the shortage of working guards continues.
"The one border guard that I happen to know, he told me that he had four managers. In the old days he used to have one manager or two," said Bridal. "It's typical federal government, let's put more and more managers in place and let's have less and fewer people actually doing the work."
The point of the meeting today was to align everyone on what was known, and what the current forecast for the future of the border crossings at this time.
Nothing has officially been announced regarding a reduction of hours, or for any closures. This meeting was simply to bring everyone up to speed on what they believe could be happening behind closed doors.
Last week, Swift Current Online reached out to the CBSA for comment on these allegations. They denied the allegations, and have not issued a statement contrary to that since.
As far as why Bridal and the others think this is a real possibility, he pointed to how the American border crossings have different hours than their Canadian counterparts.
"(...) COVID shut it all down, and then when they opened back up, they opened up with different hours," said Bridal. "The Americans are definitely driving this bus, so to speak, and they're telling our Canadian government what to do. It's going to impact business on the Canadian and on the American side."
According to the Canada Border Agency Website, the Willow Creek border crossing operates from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. from the second Sunday in March to the first Saturday in November. During the rest of the year, it is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., excluding holidays.
On the U.S. Customs and Border Protection website, the Willow Creek Montana border crossing is listed as open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. all year long.
Bridal stated that the American elected officials from Montana and North Dakota shared in these concerns.
"They feel the exact same way because they're feeling the pressures in their communities with Canadians not coming down," said Bridal.