Plan to cut hours at Maine border crossing has people on both sides unhappy
CBC
Daniel Beers grew up in Vanceboro, Maine, a border town where he could throw a stone across the St. Croix River and it would land in another country.
The dual citizen has more family on the Canadian side than in the U.S., and says he normally crosses the border almost daily. He says most people in Vanceboro have family tin Canada.
But if plans to cut operating hours in half go ahead, movement between Canada and the United States would only be allowed 12 hours a day.
Residents of both Vanceboro and nearby McAdam, N.B., say it will hurt families and businesses and leave many vulnerable without some emergency services.
"We're neighbours, we're basically the same community here," Beers said. "And they're just drawing a line right down the middle of us."
WATCH | Vanceboro, Maine residents react to border crossing closing for 12 hours each day:
The crossing is on the St. Croix River, about 10 kilometres west of McAdam. The U.S. Vanceboro Port of Entry plans to reduce its hours of operation to 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Atlantic time in the fall. The crossing now operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
CBC News requested an interview with U.S. Customs and Border Protection about the specifics and the reasoning behind the decision. No one was made available.
But correspondence between the agency and the area's elected officials confirm the plan to reduce hours.
And it seems no one who lives in the area is happy about it.
The region is just recovering from two years of border closures because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
When the border reopened and the two communities were interacting again, things started to feel closer to normal, Beers said.
But in early spring, construction crews began to build fences and gates at the U.S. border station. Word spread that the crossing would shut down in evenings starting in September.
"They're not actually 100 per cent taking it away from us, but they are limiting our access to it," Beers said. "Just so many things are taken away."
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