Day visits golf club, Pedersen farm

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By Mark Rickard

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A golf club with an 80-year cross border history and a Canadian farmer that is undergoing scrutiny from the United States Border Patrol received some high-level attention last week. Stockwell Day, Conservative Minister of Public Safety, visited Nick Pedersen and the Aroostook Valley County Club to see first-hand the challenges of using a road in the United States to access a Canadian property.

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Steve Leitch, golf pro and manager of Aroostook Valley Country Club, points out the United States-Canada border marker to Mike Allen, left, Tobique-Mactaquac MP, and Stockwell Day, Conservative Minister of Public Safety. Day toured Brown and Russell Road on Thursday.

Day, who was accompanied by Mike Allen, Tobique -Mactaquac MP and an entourage of four vehicles, crossed the United States border at Fort Fairfield after attending the official opening ceremonies on the new Canada Border Services Agency Andover port in Carlingford. The minister visited AVCC and Pedersen's farm before entering Canada again at the Canadian port on Brown Road.

"This is a United States difficulty that we are having. We will keep making the case… There is kind of a temporary situation worked out, but we want something better in the long run," Day stated. "Between Mike, myself and others we are continuing to push the US on this issue."

The United States Border patrol made their intention to close Russell Road to all traffic clear during an intensive enforcement action held in the spring before the golf club opened. A town hall meeting in June, organized by the border patrol, indicated that Canadian and American golfers can continue their tradition of crossing the Canada-United States border to play golf at AVCC, but the long-term future is uncertain, especially if American border enforcement goes ahead with their intention to eventually close Russell Road.

MP Mike Allen joined Maine Senator Susan Collins, who is the Senate Homeland Security Committee Ranking Member, urging U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to consider establishing a seasonal port of entry at the U.S./Canadian border along Russell Road in Fort Fairfield. The politicians joined forces with golf club officials lobbying for the new customs port to keep the golf club open and help preserve the local economy. During his visit last week the minister pledged to continue lobbying the Americans to allow golfers to access the club without checking in at border crossings.

"There is more that has to be done. I don't want to prejudice the discussions or negotiations that are going on, but I can tell you that we are making a pretty forceful case. It is a US issue and we appreciate their needs and concerns on the security side, but there is the human interest side that is very important as well."

The Minister pointed out the CBSA has worked hard to help Nick Pedersen and his family get access to their property without having to report to U.S. Customs in Fort Fairfield.

Minister Day said his government was successful in encouraging the United States to push back their requirements for all land-based entries into the US to require a passport. The original implementation date was January, 2008 and the Public Safety minister said that would have caused huge problems on both sides of the border.

"We will continue to work to make this as easy a transition as possible, but this is their law, not ours," he stated.

The ministers said new staff were hired and procedures put in place to reduce the backlog to get a Canadian passport, but the minister urged all Canadians who intend to travel to apply for a passport.

"Everyone was quite rightly worried about the backlog and thanks to MPs like Mike who let everyone know their citizens did not want to wait so long to get their passports, the situation was resolved."

In response to questions from the media, Day said Canada has been successful in getting Americans to adjust their border crossing requirements into accepting alternative documents.

"We told them 'you folks are going to have big problems at the border. You will have Americans going back to the United States who won't be able to get into their county because they don't have their passports.' It wasn't just at the parliamentary level. Cross borders mayors and everyone got the message back to Washington that this was going to be a problem. We were successful at that end, despite the fact that this was U.S. law, we were able to alter it."