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 Travel & Outdoors | March 2008 
Customs' Hours Frustrate Air Travellers
 Cassandra Kyle - The Saskatoon StarPhoenix
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When Doug Henheffer returned to Saskatchewan after a week-long vacation in Puerto Vallarta he was expecting to clear customs, pick up a coffee and enjoy a leisurely drive home to Yorkton.
Instead, the hearing-aid distributor spent the last hour of his winter holiday on the tarmac at Regina's international airport, waiting for Canada Customs officials to start their work day at 8 a.m.
What Henheffer once thought was a scheme by tour companies to save money by flying the charter flight at unusual hours - in this case leaving the vacation spot at 3 a.m. - was actually the only time his charter flight could leave Puerto Vallarta in order to arrive within the constraints of customs agents' working hours of 8 a.m. to midnight. Leaving earlier would put passengers at risk of a long wait in a plane just sitting on the tarmac.
Unfortunately for Henheffer, and the other passengers on board the plane, the flight arrived early.
"We had to sit in that bloody plane," he said in an interview. "The pilot actually (made an) announcement and said, 'Well, we apologize, we're here a little bit early, we didn't think that would be a problem. Canada Customs won't let you deplane until they're ready to work, which is eight o'clock.' "
"You've got pilots, passengers and tour companies who are all being inconvenienced because of a civil service that's supposed to be there for our benefit, not for theirs, and that's not right."
The incident is a frustrating reality for both the Regina and Saskatoon airport authorities, which have been in ongoing discussions with the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) to expand staff hours at customs and immigration facilities. While agents will stay after or arrive early to their shifts at the airports to process flights arriving outside scheduled hours due to delays, airlines are required to schedule flights - charter or not - within the 18-hour time frame.
In some cases, the restriction has made it impossible for some flights to be scheduled out of Regina and Saskatoon, said Saskatoon Airport Authority CEO Bill Restall.
"This winter WestJet, for example, wanted to fly one to (Las) Vegas but they couldn't make it work in terms of when they wanted to fly the aircraft," Restall said. "We were very disappointed because we wanted that flight to occur, so what we're working on is to try and build that flexibility into next year's schedule so that Canada Customs can provide a better level of service as we go into the next charter program."
While Saskatoon's airport is the busiest one in Canada without 24-hour customs service, Saskatchewan isn't the only province waiting for the CBSA to expand hours. The CEO said airports in British Columbia, Ontario and the Atlantic provinces have been waiting for change long before customs service became an issue here. Restall and his colleagues want more flexibility from Canada Customs.
"We believe that this is a service that they provide to the travelling public, to the taxpayers," he said. "At many small airports like Saskatoon and Regina that don't have 24-hour coverage, they should find a way to change their operations so that they're able to facilitate and accommodate the aircraft throughout the day."
In response to demand for extended customs hours from airports across Canada, the federal Ministry of Public Safety, which oversees the CBSA and Canada Customs, is conducting a review of service that could result in the recommendation of 24-hour service in certain cities.
According to John Brent, a senior spokesperson for the office of Public Safety and its Minister Stockwell Day, approximately 115 Canada Customs officers work at land and border crossings in Saskatchewan.
"The government recognizes that the development of small airports contributes to economic prosperity," Brent wrote in an e-mail from Ottawa on behalf of Day. "Decisions to provide CBSA services are always carefully considered and take into account security, service to the public and the government's fiscal responsibilities."
But until the CBSA can approve additional hours at Saskatchewan airports, said Henheffer, some travellers will continue to encounter disappointing service.
"It just seems to me that's not the way it should be," he said. "I mean, in my mind they're civil servants, they're there for us. Regina is an international airport, get with the times - take care of the passengers when they come in."
ckyle(at)sp.canwest.com |
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