The Reeve of Piney is extremely disappointed in a decision by the Canada Border Services Agency to reduce hours at the ports of entry at South Junction, Piney and Tolstoi. The CBSA has announced those cuts will take effect November 26th. Wayne Anderson says there are a number of reasons why it's important the hours be maintained, including the fact local residents access health care in Roseau, Minnesota.

"The Roseau Hospital has been our only hospital out here so a lot of our residents were born in the hospital. Of course, all the children that are born there have dual citizenship so a lot of them work at Polaris Industries or Marvin Windows or various places like that."

Anderson says it appears this decision has not been clearly thought through and he would like the CBSA to re-think its methodology.

"The CBSA, they use the yardstick of counting the number of vehicles crossing a border which is a good formula for places like Windsor, Ontario where there are hundreds of vehicles. But, even five vehicles crossing here at night is important to us because it's somebody returning from work or returning from the hospital. It will make us travel a lot more miles to go around to a 24-hour port."

Anderson is urging people to attend a meeting Wednesday night in Piney, hosted by the CBSA to get feedback on the decision. He is hoping if people share their stories, the CBSA may reverse its decision. The CBSA will also host a meeting in Tolstoi Thursday to get feedback.

He notes Roseau, Minnesota is continuing to work on getting the U.S. government to turn the Roseau/South Junction crossing into a 24-hour port. Anderson says it is his hope that if that happens on the U.S. side, that Canada will also do so.

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Canada Customs Cuts Hours At Tolstoi, South Junction, Piney