Pipe dream Customs expansion planned but it could take up to five years to materialize

Ken Johnston

All the planning is done, but the next step is finding funding to make improvements to Rainy River’s Canada Customs facility.
Last summer surveyors visited the building at Rainy River and sent their data to a consultant who then proceeded to work up blueprints for improvements to the existing facility which is too small to meet the needs of the local officers.
Chris Kealey, Communications Manager with Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), said the projected costs to make the building more functional have come in at approximately $2 million.
There would be an addition on the north side of the existing building, revised space for secondary inspections and a special lane for commercial traffic inspections. The commercial lane could in busy times also be used for a second lane of regular travellers.
Kealey said that the existing building was built in 1991 and was hastily done as the old one was condemned. The haste coupled with a changed world since 911, has seen a need for more space than the present facility has to offer. The current building is 210 square metres and the new one would be 670 sq. m.
However, since the building is owned by the government of Canada finding funds to make the improvements might be difficult. Kealey said that all government owned facilities submit requests for funding from annual budgets. But there are facilities that are in more dire shape than Rainy River’s and they could trump the request for funding here.
Suffice to say, Kealey was not very optimistic about the proposed expansion’s immediate future. “It is not likely that it will be built in five years.”