Residents from the Tolstoi area are pleading the Canada Border Services agency changes its decision to reduce hours come November 26.

The CBSA says the hour cuts will affect the ports at South Junction, Piney, and Tolstoi. A large crowd gathered at the Tolstoi Ukrainian National Hall last night to voice their concerns to local CBSA Director Yvonne Bremault. A number of residents asked for various statistics regarding vehicle and larger truck traffic crossing at Tolstoi but multiple times Bremault responded saying "I don't have that information with me on hand".

Meanwhile, Provencher MP Ted Falk had some of these stats with him printed out in his pocket which he found online. Falk pointed out that Tolstoi is the eighth busiest port in Manitoba and suggested they should look at other ports where the impact is less significant. Falk says he was encouraged that the CBSA is looking at ways to save tax dollars but noted they need to take into consideration the local people in the area whose livelihoods depend on that crossing. There are 16 ports of entry in Manitoba.   

Yvonne Bremault, Director of Southern Manitoba District with CBSA

Local resident Joanne Drewniak says one of her big concerns is that with a reduction in hours, it makes it appear as though the area is shut down and closed for business. She says although the stats show a relatively low amount of traffic crossing at Tolstoi, that traffic is vital to local businesses and the large agriculture community.

"Four vehicles per hour as Director Bremault said is important to every small business along the highway. Out of those four cars that come every hour, maybe you get one stop at the gas station. You get four or five people stopping at a gas station in a small rural community, that’s important," says Drewniak. 

"One of the things that was raised tonight was really interesting was the fact that there was a farmer in the area whose trucks use that port two or three times a night," explains Drewniak. "Changing those hours would cause him to go to Emerson and increase his travel and that’s just ridiculous because that is a lot of dollars. These people in this area don’t make a lot of money and any increases and expenses by traveling further to do things is not right."

The CBSA also indicated that because the border hours will be reduced that there will be an increased RCMP presence in the area. The local residents were not buying that. "The RCMP in this area, police a large area and they’re not often in the area now because we don’t have a lot of crime issues but we already have traffic speeding through town so when you’re saying they’re going to be here more often, I’m highly doubtful of that," Drewniak explains. 

She adds the fact of having traffic flowing through town, although it may be sparse at times, brings a sense of security to the community. 

La Verendrye MLA Dennis Smook, who’s constituency starts one mile from Tolstoi, says when you cut back hours, eventually the stats will show the numbers drop and he adds that’s not fair to the local people.

"I think it’s a wrong decision," notes Smook who hopes Bremault will reconsider her decision.

"There was a lot of good points brought up here tonight that there were no answers for so I hope that she does reconsider."

We are awaiting a response from the CBSA to see if there is a chance they will reconsider its decision.