Long weekend sparks long waits at Maine-N.B. border
CBC
If there's one thing New Brunswickers love to do, it's take a trip across the border. But these days, you might want to budget a little more time.
Especially heading into a long weekend.
John Slipp is the owner of the Woodstock Duty Free shop, right on the border crossing into Houlton, Maine at Interstate 95.
The view of America-bound cars from his window around noon on Friday was bleak.
"Vehicles are lined up past Canada Customs back as far as I can see. It's a busy day," Slipp said.
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection website lists wait times for border crossings in real time compared to an average.
The wait time at noon Friday for cars heading into the U.S. past Slipp's store was listed as 55 minutes, longer than the 25-minute average.
While vehicles headed into the States are backed up, he said the line into Canada is often helped by opening an additional lane. But that's not the case with the Americans.
"We're a little frustrated with U.S. Customs because they don't open a second lane near as often as Canada Customs does. So that slows things down considerably," said Slipp.
Barbara Barrett is the executive director of the Frontier Duty Free Association, which represents 32 duty-free shops on the Canadian side.
She says lineups heading into the States are an issue along the whole border.
"People look at how long the wait times are at the border before they cross, often, and if there's a two-hour wait, it disincentivizes them to even try and cross," Barrett said.
For duty-free shops, she said that long lines keep customers from shopping.
"If you had a spot in line, you don't want to get out of the line and go into the parking lot and then have to get back in line again," Barrett said.