Lines, lines everywhere the lines are growing

June 01, 2009

By Mark Rushton - Abbotsford News

I read over the weekend that in Prince George there are unprecedented demands on local food banks, that the Sally Ann up there has never seen such line-ups at their food distribution centre.

Back more than four decades, Prince, as the locals called it, proudly labeled itself the White Pine Capital of the World.

Today, thanks to the beetle infestation, it is perhaps more appropriate to be labeled the Dead Pine Capital. However, lack of trees isn’t what is driving hordes for handouts, it is the economy and the lack of demand for wood products south of the border.

I remember back those many decades when the only line-ups in Prince were the guys who were climbing into crew trucks heading out to work.

In those days you could walk into the employment office and there’d be employers snatching you up before you could even say you were looking for a job. And if you didn’t like what you were first offered, there were lots of others for the asking.

Prince George was a boomtown then and for many years to follow, with literally thousands of jobs in and outside the city.

But the gloom that surrounds that area of the province will eventually lift, and demand for wood will return along with the jobs.

It is just a matter of waiting out the U.S. recession where employment, immigration and a rising greenback will spark a building boom that will see our lumber once again flowing south by the truckload.

Yet what do the mavens at Canadian Border Services do to address cross-border commerce? They decide to charge huge sums to process tourist trains coming here, and close the Aldergrove crossing to commercial trucks.

That last move will cause already lengthy truck lines to rival the people lines at Prince George food banks.

You have to wonder what this bureaucratic organization is thinking, though that is a word that seems to be missing in these decisions.

A look at Pacific Highway or Huntingdon on almost any day will tell you they can’t handle any more trucks without huge transportation time lost.

We build highways and bridges, invest billions making B.C. the Gateway to Asia-Pacific nations and to the U.S.

America is our biggest trading partner (even though the flow of wood has diminished of late), yet on both sides of the border the federal governments seemed determined to make things difficult.

Thanks to the Americans as of Monday, you need a passport to buy cheese in Sumas. And on our side, Border Services is cutting back commercial truck accessibility.

What sense is there in that? Our province does its damnedest to encourage trade, and the feds seem bent on discouraging it.

Time for Ed Fast and Mark Warawa to raise their voices in Ottawa, time to rally all MPs who represent communities along the Canada-U.S. border to change the attitude of those who lead Canadian Border Services.

Time to remind them that our future depends on a more open border, because until that happens, lines of trucks and lines at food banks will continue grow.