Case example, technology should not trump people.

WINDSOR, ON – Today, Brian Masse MP released the following statement:

“In light of the backups at the Canada-US border today, I want to remind travelers to exercise patience while crossing at the international crossings.  I know these backups can be trying when you are traveling and remind you that the border officers on both sides of the border are doing their best to get you through the border safely and as efficiently as possible.

We have learned that the global power technology outage has affected the American side of operations, but traffic is flowing. At the Ambassador Bridge, there are three lanes currently open on the US side.  However, due to staffing shortages on the Canadian side, there is only one lane open at this time. One could only imagine the further delays had Canada also been affected by the outage.

As the Canada-United States Border Critic, I have repeatedly worked with the Customs and Immigration Union (CIU), that represents Canadian border officers, calling for increased staffing, at our ports of entry. We need to hire and train more officers to ensure these backups do not continue.

Most recently, with the CIU, we have jointly called for a new training facility in Windsor to expedite and increase the amount of border guards trained and ready to staff these border officer shortages.  Again, I call on the Government of Canada to take this issue seriously and commit to increasing officers and open a new training facility in Windsor to address these urgent needs.

For travelers in the back-up today, please remain calm and have all your necessary documents ready to help officers process your travel as quickly as they can.”

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For more information: Melanie Namespetra (o) 613-996-1541 or [email protected]