Fraser border hours reduced for travellers entering Yukon
The Canadian border crossing at Fraser on the South Klondike Highway will be under reduced hours beginning April 1.
The limited hours used to be implemented only in the off-season, but the change announced by the Canadian Border Services Agency means the crossing on the route between Whitehorse and Skagway, Alaska, will be closed between midnight and 8 a.m., even in the summer.
The number of people using the Fraser crossing in the wee hours of the morning doesn't warrant funding the border service around-the-clock, Yukon MP Ryan Leef told CBC News.
"The infrastructure and the human resources costs are tremendous for pretty small metrics."
The change in hours has not been updated on the CBSA website.
United States border could follow suit
Buckwheat Donahue at the Skagway Convention & Visitors Bureau called the decision to shorten the border hours a disappointment.
"But for the most part I think we're going to be able to live with it," he said. "And I really don't think the consequences will be dire."
However, Donahue added, the closure could go both ways: "Our border people have said that if Canada's going to close, they're probably going to close, too."
Should that happen, he said, some Canadians will notice.
"I think the folks that it's going to affect the most are people that … normally might get up early in the morning and drive to Skagway to put their car on the ferry to go to Haines or to Juneau for the 7 o'clock departure times" he said.
If the United States border at Alaska did reduce its hours, Yukoners would have to travel to Skagway the night before to catch the ferry to Juneau.
Leef said one possible remedy could be a self-declaration point, which he said is used at some other remote points of entry. The MP said he has put this suggestion and other queries to the CBSA and is waiting to hear back.
Consequences for road relay unknown
Leef said that while he supports the reduced hours at the border, he will look at any "unintended consequences."
When asked what might happen to the annual Klondike Road Relay, which stretches more than 175-kilometres from Skagway to Whitehorse and draws more than 1,000 runners, Leef said it shouldn't be a problem.
"Being a runner, that was one of the first things I thought of," he said. "I'm sure there's certainly operational allowances for particular weekends."
Sport Yukon concerned
Tracey Bilsky, executive director of Sport Yukon, the group that puts on the road relay, hadn't heard about the border changes and says she'll be contacting the CBSA soon.
"Yeah, [the change] is problematic. We're going to need to negotiate with them to see if we can extend that or that will greatly affect our relay," she told CBC News.
"Our fastest runners leave Skagway at around midnight, sometimes 12:30 ... so they won't be able to cross through until about 1 or 1:30 [a.m.].
"But then even after that we have all of our equipment and banners and stuff that we then need to get from the start line to the finish line, so they go through the border at around 2 or 2:30," she said.
