Group calls for unified stance on 24-hour port efforts
Tim Leeds, tleeds@havredailynews.com
Hill and Blaine county and Canadian officials agreed Wednesday to work together to upgrade the border ports of Wild Horse and Turner to 24-hour commercial status.
“It seems to me we have a real opportunity here, if we can flesh out the details, to turn this into a study area that looks at an entire region that includes two provinces (and) the state of Montana and the overall impact,” Blaine County Commissioner Vic Miller said. “It seems like this is a natural marriage to me.”
The group agreed to start working on a proclamation saying the region supports improving border hours to increase traffic and trade from Canada into Montana and vice versa and to set up a committee, with a tentative meeting set for November in Medicine Hat, Alberta, to work on the effort.
The meeting originally was set so members of a group trying to upgrade the Port of Turner to 24-hour commercial status and the members of a group trying to do the same for the Port of Wild Horse north of Havre could discuss each group's efforts.
Twenty-six representatives of government or organizations from Blaine and Hill counties and Alberta and Saskatchewan, as well as staff membrs of Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester attended Wednesday's meeting. Havre Mayor Tim Solomon, co-chair of the Wild Horse Border Committee, said when he opened the meeting in Havre that it was arranged before the secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, made announcements about the Port of Wild Horse while she was in Havre last week.
The tone of the meeting seemed to hinge on Napolitano’s attitude.
She and Alan Bersin, commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said a key to upgrading Wild Horse will be the local people showing how and why a 24-hour status will work.
“One of the things I was most impressed with in that meeting last week was the fact — and we should all be very optimistic as a result of that meeting — (was) what a turnaround we saw in the attitude of Homeland Security and Border Protection,” said Bob Sivertsen, who has been working to get the port upgraded for several years.
Sivertsen’s committee and the committee now chaired by Solomon have been told for more than five years that the numbers of vehicles crossing at Wild Horse do not justify 24-hour commercial status.
During the town hall meeting in Havre last week, Miller told Napolitano and Bersin that the region, not individual ports, should be looked at for the impact of upgrading the ports.
He said during Wednesday’s meeting that combining the work of the groups seems to be the way to do that.
“It appears to me, number one, the data already is here. It’s just a matter of putting it all together,” he said.
Sivertsen said that upgrading the ports would create direct connections to the Ports to Plains economic corridor from Alberta and Saskatchewan. Alberta already is a member of the group trying to upgrade infrastructure and connections from the ports in Texas to the plains in the north. Work to get Saskatchewan on board is under way, he added.
Once the Canadian provinces are added to the region, the region will have an enormous economic punch, he said.
“Folks, we've got everything that the rest of the world needs,” Sivertsen said. “And if we work together and rise to the occaision and market it properly, this probably will be one of the biggest trading blocks in the world.”
LaVar Payne, member of the Canadian Parliament from Alberta, agreed.
“That group (of states and provinces) would be the 11th largest economic group in the world … it’s huge,” he said.
Some warned of the dangers of giving up their own efforts.
Havre City Council Member Bob Kaul, a member of Sivertsen’s committee, said Napolitano and Bersin’s focus seemed to be on Wild Horse.
“I believe that is the trail they want us to follow, then work on the next (port), then work on the next one,” he said.
Sivertsen said the progress on Wild Horse seems almost unstoppable, but he also supports working on a regional effort.
Solomon said much the same.
“We’re going forward with Wild Horse as we do this,” he said, adding that he imagines the Turner group also will continue its efforts.
“But this is a bigger group that can help us with (saying we need 24-hour status),” he said.
Rep. Wendy Warburton, R-Havre, said she believes Napolitano has interest in seeing a regional effort to upgrade Wild Horse and Turner ports, and that upgrading both would help the entire region.
Warburton said that when she brought the effort to upgrade the Turner port to Napolitano’s attention, she seemed interested and unaware that that push was under way.
“Opening them both will help our region,” she said.
Hill and Blaine county and Canadian officials agreed Wednesday to work together to upgrade the border ports of Wild Horse and Turner to 24-hour commercial status.
“It seems to me we have a real opportunity here, if we can flesh out the details, to turn this into a study area that looks at an entire region that includes two provinces (and) the state of Montana and the overall impact,” Blaine County Commissioner Vic Miller said. “It seems like this is a natural marriage to me.”
The group agreed to start working on a proclamation saying the region supports improving border hours to increase traffic and trade from Canada into Montana and vice versa and to set up a committee, with a tentative meeting set for November in Medicine Hat, Alberta, to work on the effort.
The meeting originally was set so members of a group trying to upgrade the Port of Turner to 24-hour commercial status and the members of a group trying to do the same for the Port of Wild Horse north of Havre could discuss each group's efforts.
Twenty-six representatives of government or organizations from Blaine and Hill counties and Alberta and Saskatchewan, as well as staff membrs of Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester attended Wednesday's meeting. Havre Mayor Tim Solomon, co-chair of the Wild Horse Border Committee, said when he opened the meeting in Havre that it was arranged before the secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, made announcements about the Port of Wild Horse while she was in Havre last week.
The tone of the meeting seemed to hinge on Napolitano’s attitude.
She and Alan Bersin, commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said a key to upgrading Wild Horse will be the local people showing how and why a 24-hour status will work.
“One of the things I was most impressed with in that meeting last week was the fact — and we should all be very optimistic as a result of that meeting — (was) what a turnaround we saw in the attitude of Homeland Security and Border Protection,” said Bob Sivertsen, who has been working to get the port upgraded for several years.
Sivertsen’s committee and the committee now chaired by Solomon have been told for more than five years that the numbers of vehicles crossing at Wild Horse do not justify 24-hour commercial status.
During the town hall meeting in Havre last week, Miller told Napolitano and Bersin that the region, not individual ports, should be looked at for the impact of upgrading the ports.
He said during Wednesday’s meeting that combining the work of the groups seems to be the way to do that.
“It appears to me, number one, the data already is here. It’s just a matter of putting it all together,” he said.
Sivertsen said that upgrading the ports would create direct connections to the Ports to Plains economic corridor from Alberta and Saskatchewan. Alberta already is a member of the group trying to upgrade infrastructure and connections from the ports in Texas to the plains in the north. Work to get Saskatchewan on board is under way, he added.
Once the Canadian provinces are added to the region, the region will have an enormous economic punch, he said.
“Folks, we've got everything that the rest of the world needs,” Sivertsen said. “And if we work together and rise to the occaision and market it properly, this probably will be one of the biggest trading blocks in the world.”
LaVar Payne, member of the Canadian Parliament from Alberta, agreed.
“That group (of states and provinces) would be the 11th largest economic group in the world … it’s huge,” he said.
Some warned of the dangers of giving up their own efforts.
Havre City Council Member Bob Kaul, a member of Sivertsen’s committee, said Napolitano and Bersin’s focus seemed to be on Wild Horse.
“I believe that is the trail they want us to follow, then work on the next (port), then work on the next one,” he said.
Sivertsen said the progress on Wild Horse seems almost unstoppable, but he also supports working on a regional effort.
Solomon said much the same.
“We’re going forward with Wild Horse as we do this,” he said, adding that he imagines the Turner group also will continue its efforts.
“But this is a bigger group that can help us with (saying we need 24-hour status),” he said.
Rep. Wendy Warburton, R-Havre, said she believes Napolitano has interest in seeing a regional effort to upgrade Wild Horse and Turner ports, and that upgrading both would help the entire region.
Warburton said that when she brought the effort to upgrade the Turner port to Napolitano’s attention, she seemed interested and unaware that that push was under way.
“Opening them both will help our region,” she said.
