Hours reduced at some Maine-N.B. border crossings
Crossing the border between Maine and New Brunswick may take a little more planning, as six points of entry change their opening hours starting next month.
Points of entry at Bloomfield, Milltown, Centreville, Gillespie, Forest City and Fosterville will soon either close at night, on Sundays or for statutory holidays.
Calvin Christiansen, regional director general with the Canada Border Services Agency, said the changes align with the hours of service at the corresponding U.S. border points and follow a drop in crossings in recent years.
U.S. Border Services analyzed traffic during overnight shifts at the crossings, he said.
"The numbers are and have been quite low for quite some time," he said.
"So that led them to their decision and we thought it was a prudent and good decision as well."
Christiansen said there is usually one car going through the Gillespie border after 11 p.m., six cars at Centreville, and eight at the Milltown border.
"Based on those numbers it does make sense for us to close those ports down on the midnight shift," he said, adding that there are two other, 24-hour crossings in St. Stephen, near the Milltown entry point.
"So there's not a lot of inconvenience for those eight vehicles that arrive every night to move either way down the road."
Changes in traffic patterns
Christiansen said analyzing traffic patterns today is easier and more accurate than 20 or 30 years ago because it's done electronically now.
Border Services now knows exactly how many people cross at what time and day of the week, and whether people are residents of Canada.
He said the drop in border crossings is related to changes in population, industry and traffic patterns.
In 1991, a large air force base in Maine near the Gillespie crossing closed.
Within three years, the population in the area dropped by 8,000 people, he said.
"So what that drop of population on the U.S. side was was certainly a drop in traffic for us," he said.
Traffic to the U.S. is also affected by the value of the Canadian dollar, and more people are now flying abroad.
"Our resources kind of change around, based on where the traffic is," he said.
Border Services informed businesses and nearby communities that might be affected by the changes.
"No one has really expressed that they were upset about it," he said.
Shared emergency services
Patrolling the border during the hours when the crossings are closed remains the responsibility of the RCMP, Christiansen said.
But Border Services is working with shared fire and ambulance services that may still need to cross the border at all hours of the day.
"In particular in the Gillespie area, there's an agreement with the fire services on both sides," he said.
"And we'll go through a process with the fire services to look at the members or the volunteers that would be crossing and go through a pre-clearance process with them."
No border closures
Christiansen said no border guards will lose their jobs because of the reduced hours, though some of them may have to work at different locations.
The Canadian agency is not planning to close any border crossings.
The only border crossing between New Brunswick and Maine that closed recently was on Deer Island, he said, because of the continuing lack of a ferry service from Eastport, Maine.
"We always take a look at these small ports of entry to see whether they are viable and sustainable and whether they should stay in operaiton, but as of today there is no immediate plan to close any of those ports of entry."
