Plans to Cut Hours at Vanceboro, Maine Border Crossing Will Bottleneck the Supply Chain

At the St. Croix, New Brunswick and Vanceboro, Maine international border crossing just 10 kilometres west of McAdam, the river narrows to a point where you are quite literally a stone's throw away from the other side. Like many bordertowns, the two closely knit communities were strained by COVID-19 border restrictions. But, just when life was slowly returning to normal in the area, locals learned of some unsettling news. The U.S. Vanceboro Port of Entry, which currently operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, plans to reduce its hours of operation to 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Atlantic time beginning some time this fall.

McAdam Mayor Ken Stannix says this move will have a devastating effect on both sides of the border, on both a local and global scale.

"We supply ambulance services and fire fighting services to the other side in Vanceboro on occasion, so that would potentially be lost," said Stannix. "We would also potentially lose business opportunities between the two communities. Families on both sides of the border would potentially have to drive all the way around to Saint Stephen and then up to Calais, Maine to visit a relative on either side of the border, so at the personal level--there's that aspect of it. From the trade perspective, which is important as well, Saint John has just gone through expansion at the port. Canadian Pacific has purchased rail lines coming down from Montreal into Maine so that they connect from Maine into Saint John. Reducing hours of operation at the border would bottleneck the supply chain." 

With the rail lines expected to become even busier in the coming months and years, Stannix is concerned that the cutting hours of operation at the border is a short-sighted move that will do long-term damage to the supply chain and growth of the region.

"We've already seen what those bottlenecks are doing in New York and in San Francisco. It's damaging," said Stannix. "It's creating inflation to the economies of both countries, so what is it that they are going to accomplish by closing the Vanceboro border? Is it three or four people salaries? And you're going to sacrifice that for people's security and for billions of dollars of goods? I'm hearing that the number of trains that are going to be moving through that border crossing right now or about one per day and that's going to increase over the next two or three years to three or maybe four."

We reached out to U.S. Customs and Border Protection for comment but did not here back before broadcast time. There will be a public meeting on July 5 at 5pm Eastern Standard Time and 6pm Atlantic Time at the Vanceboro Community Center to discuss the proposed reduction in hours. U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officials and local port directors will be in attendance and members of surrounding communities from both sides of the border are encouraged to come and participate.