Dear Editor,
Open Letter to MLA Rich Coleman and Mayor Jack Froese:
$25.5 million to widen Highway 13 from 8th Avenue to Zero is a ‘nice’ idea but perhaps there is a bigger issue.
The problem is not the approaches to the border but the border itself.
We have plenty of experience (24+ years) with border crossings since we have family on both sides.
The brand new border crossing at Aldergrove will simply be a monument in futility if it does not get used effectively!
The past week again serves as an example of how things are. There were huge line-ups coming into Canada with only two of the five booths open.
This is a common occurrence and many times during peak times i.e., Lynden Fair. Understaffed or whatever the problem is at the border crossings amounts to government sanctioned hassling of law abiding citizens.
No degree of widening roads on either side of the border is going to help with this problem. If governments get serious about the problem of bottlenecks at the borders it can be ‘fixed’ immediately without the $25.5 mil upgrade.
Before the 2010 Olympics CBC reported the following: “One extra booth will open in each of Lynden and Sumas, in the Fraser Valley east of Vancouver”.
During that time there appeared to be a concentrated effort to avoid lineups and voila, it worked! Spend the $25 mil elsewhere!
Aubrey Vandergaag
