Border a Much Different Place

(Frank Bucholtz - Langley Times)

In my early 20s, I spent almost five years working for what was then known as Canada Customs, first as a university student, and then full-time for three years.

It seems a long time ago, and in speaking last week with Kim Scoville, director of the Pacific Highway District for Canada Border Services Agency last week, it also seems like it was in another world. [...]

The Huntingdon crossing in Abbotsford is also a commercial entry point, and is the third-busiest crossing. Aldergrove is less busy, and only deals with limited commercial shipments — a fact which has become newsworthy in the past few months, and one which Scoville addressed at some length in his speech to the Greater Langley Chamber of Commerce.

The quietest of the five crossings is at Boundary Bay in Delta, which deals with traffic coming from Point Roberts, an isolated peninsula of the U.S. located south of Tsawwassen.

The Aldergrove CBSA office will be replaced by a new building in the next couple of years, and one thing CBSA had been considering as part of that replacement project was redirecting all commercial shipments to Huntingdon or Pacific Highway. The main reason officials were considering such a move is security. Read more here.