MEDICINE HAT, AB. – Summer hours at the Wild Horse Canadian Border Services Crossing will end Saturday and return to operating from 8:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. daily.
The crossing saw 17,000 travellers from May to August come through in 8,000 vehicles.
Medicine Hat city councillor Celina Symmonds, said these numbers would significantly increase for freight trucks if the border had extended hours all year round.
“If you’re running a truck across the border and they have to stop and wait overnight, the cost to companies is great so they don’t take the risk, so instead they go through Great Falls,” she said.
Symmonds explained that if the border extended their hours, it could benefit Medicine Hat.
“We could direct that traffic back and through Medicine Hat, and see economic impact that way and the trucking companies have stated they would absolutely use that border if it was open longer,” she said
C.H. Robinson manages freight transportation across North America,. Alexander Linetsky, Calgary General Manager said they have hundreds of trucks crossing the Canada-U.S. border everyday.
“Majority of the shipments that we move, the crossing is in Coutts, Alberta and into Sweetgrass, Montana,” he explained.
Any of C.H. Robinson’s freight trucks travelling further east than the Coutts crossing travel into Saskatchewan and cross into the U.S. from there.
Symmonds said this is an opportunity for growth and a committee is putting together a business case for the federal government to extend the hours of operation at Wild Horse.
“Alberta really only has one 24-hour crossing right now and as far as economic development and the safety of our borders, we need more access between here and the United States,” she explained.
The city of Havre, Montana would also see a benefit from the extension of hours at the crossing, located just on the other side.
