Canada won’t mirror extended border hours in Mont.

MEDICINE HAT, Alta. – Canada has decided not to follow U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s move to extend hours of operation at the Port of Wild Horse north of Havre, Mont.

CBP was going to scale back hours at the port as well but responded to public pressure to maintain the longer summer hours through to Oct. 31 and again between March 1 and May 14, 2011 (Winter hours, though, will be from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.)

Trucks, therefore, will be able to travel to Montana through the port until 9 p.m. for about another week and again throughout most of next spring. Canada, however will limit northbound access to 5 p.m.

The scarcely populated community of Havre has been lobbying CBP to make Wild Horse a 24-hour commercial port, giving truckers hauling from Alberta’s oil sands another option other than the Port of Sweetgrass, which is the only other border crossing in the state.

As a test, CBP expanded summer hours from four months to seven. Officials intended to halt the extended hours because of a drop in cross-border activity this year, but recently changed their mind when proponents pointed out that the recession skewed the potential demand for longer hours.

A Canada Border Services Agency spokesperson told the Havre Daily News that traffic numbers do not justify extending the hours in Canada; and the 8 to 5 winter hours will stand through May 14.

U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., sent a letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper about the Wild Horse issue; as well as CBSA’s decision to close the Canadian side of the little-used Whitetail, Mont.-Big Beaver, Sask. border, which prompted CBP to consider shutting down the site altogether.  


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