PEMBINA-EMERSON BORDER CROSSING – With its armed guards, German Shepherds, radiation detectors and surveillance cameras, the main border crossing between Manitoba and North Dakota isn’t the kind of place to try to sneak through.
But what is most remarkable about this busy crossing, which sees a steady flow of prairie pigs, crops and farm supplies every day, is how little trade has slowed despite the terrorist-inspired increases to border security.
“One of the purposes (of the new security system) is to facilitate legitimate trade,” said U.S. consul Todd Schwartz on a visit to the crossing site with members of the Manitoba Farm Writers and Broadcasters Association.
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On a recent morning a steady stream of semi-trailers hauling manufactured goods, piglets and half-assembled buses from a Winnipeg factory came through the border post with seemingly few problems.
It seems little different in terms of traffic flow than in the innocent days before terrorist attack in the United States, but the outwardly relaxed feeling of the border station belies a host of changes in the amount of scrutiny that people and shipments undergo, even if they’re not aware of it.
New permit systems are in place to make sure drivers entering the U.S. are low security risks. Truckers who don’t enrol in these programs spend more time getting past customs and may not be allowed to pass through during high alerts.
And U.S. border patrol members are able to act with more initiative because their numbers have been tripled since 2001.
As the Manitoba farm writers returned home from an overnight visit to Grand Forks, N.D., they had to pass through a U.S. border patrol checkpoint just shy of the border, a type of scrutiny that was rare before 9-11.
As trucks pull up to the U.S. customs post, they are checked for both driver and load. Extensive new permit requirements since 9-11 mean food products that haven’t received prior approval to enter are turned back.
The trucks also have to pass through a set of tall, yellow metal beams. These are radiation detectors and are sensitive enough to be triggered by a load of Saskatchewan potash that was going through as the farm writers watched.
The truck was then checked with a hand-held detector to ensure no suspect radioactive materials were in the load.
A few metres on is the U.S. Department of Agriculture office that inspects every load of livestock that comes through. These days that is generally just pigs, because Canadian cattle and bison have been banned from crossing since BSE.
Again, the system seems to work well and fast. After the truck checks in with the USDA veterinarians, the vets conduct a quick visual inspection of the trucks. The drivers are then allowed to keep moving south toward the American feeder barn operators who have purchased these pigs.
A couple of dozen metres to the east of the truck crossing is the car crossing, and here the flow seems quick as well. A customs officer walks around with a German shepherd, which a U.S. official said is used mainly to find illegal drugs in vehicles.
In response to a query, the official joked that the dog is pretty busy around the time of the Winnipeg Folk Festival.
While everything at the border post seems to be running seamlessly, consul Schwartz said many of the heightened security systems are still being integrated.
“We’re still very much in a post-
9-11 flux,” said Schwartz.
While the border flow is easy and quick, in reality the intense scrutiny brought in after 9-11 is located elsewhere, in the offices of the trucking companies and product shippers across Western Canada.
“Compared to three years ago, we get across there just as quickly, but the paperwork is 10 times as much,” said Larry McIntosh, general manager of the Peak of the Market vegetable growers co-operative in Winnipeg.
The company has one person working full time to file the reports that each shipment requires, which is an added cost for growers. However, the co-op is pleased that the new levels of security have been brought in so seamlessly that day-to-day cross-border movement hasn’t become snarled.
“It is kind of amazing, actually,” said McIntosh.
“As long as the paperwork’s right, everything seems to be moving smoothly.”