VZCZCXRO3360
RR RUEHGA RUEHQU RUEHVC
DE RUEHHA #0028/01 1121244
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 211244Z APR 08
FM AMCONSUL HALIFAX
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1275
INFO RUEHOT/AMEMBASSY OTTAWA 0522
RUCNCAN/ALL CANADIAN POSTS COLLECTIVE
RHMFIUU/HOMELAND SECURITY CENTER WASHINGTON DC
RUEHHA/AMCONSUL HALIFAX 1362

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HALIFAX 000028 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR WHA/CAN, CA/PPT/IA/WHTI 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: CPAS PGOV PREL WHTI ASEC ECON CA
SUBJECT: VIEW FROM THE BORDER:  MAINE-NEW BRUNSWICK CROSSINGS 
 
REF: A. 07 HALIFAX 0012 
     ¶B. 07 OTTAWA 2035 
 
HALIFAX 00000028  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶1.  SUMMARY: Building on the border reporting in ref (a), conoff 
and assistant visited the Calais/St. Stephen and 
Houlton/Woodstock ports of entry on the Maine/New Brunswick 
border the week of March 31.  Meetings with border officials, 
community representatives and businesspeople confirmed that the 
locals are expecting and prepared for full WHTI implementation, 
but that concerns still exist about backups and declining 
tourism from out-of-town.  The infrastructure and challenges at 
both POEs vary widely, serving as a good reminder that there is 
no one-size-fits-all solution to securing the land border while 
facilitating legitimate travel.  END SUMMARY. 
 
CALAIS/ST. STEPHEN 
------------------------------- 
 
¶2. Calais/St. Stephen really feels like one town on two sides of 
the border.  The border crossing point is a short two-lane 
bridge over the St. Croix River.  Restaurants, shops, services 
and homes are located close to the river and people in both 
towns depend on frequent border crossing as part of their daily 
routine.  The port would work fine if it only handled local 
traffic, but its location on the most direct route to Saint 
John, NB and Nova Scotia makes it popular with truckers and bus 
tours, and it is the busiest port on the Maine-New Brunswick 
border.  A backup of even three trucks can quickly become a 
traffic snarl in the town center, causing gridlock, pollution 
and a noisy eyesore that keeps border concerns at the top of the 
local agenda.  Officials on both sides have come up with 
solutions to keep the traffic flowing, but there is only so much 
that can be done at that location and relief really won't come 
until the new bridge and POE currently under construction are 
completed a few miles up the river. 
 
¶3.  Questions about the new bridge were raised in most 
conversations conoff had with residents in St. Stephen and 
Calais.  Construction is well underway, and the general 
expectation is that the bridge will be completed by October 2008 
and the Canadian POE could be operational by December 2008. 
Current estimates are that the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol 
(CBP) facility will not be ready until December 2009, with the 
earliest possibility being late summer 2009.  Unfortunately, 
that delay may mean that a major bridge and direct highway 
approach from Saint John, NB, may be standing unused for up to a 
year while traffic continues to crawl in Calais/St. Stephen. 
The possibility of a partial opening is being floated around, 
but it doesn't seem to have developed into a concrete plan. 
Understandably, the local communities are interested in options 
that will get that bridge open as soon as possible.  On the 
other hand, CBP employees properly pointed out their concern 
that rushing to open the new facility or a partial opening may 
result in substandard work that they may be stuck with 
indefinitely.  As one officer commented, "We've been waiting for 
that bridge for 25 years, let's take a few more months and get 
it right." 
 
¶4.  Residents on both sides of the river seem to have accepted 
the WHTI documentation requirements, and now are just trying to 
determine their best option to facilitate frequent cross-border 
travel.  The new passport card is proving to be a popular choice 
for Americans, and U.S. Post Offices throughout Maine have been 
promoting the card, even holding special Saturday hours to 
accept applications.  People do not seem to be choosing the 
NEXUS card here in great numbers yet, probably because there are 
currently only two places to enroll in Atlantic Canada, the 
Halifax International Airport and at the Woodstock POE. 
Combined, the two centers have enrolled about 800 people since 
commencing operations.  The Canadians in St. Stephen who don't 
already have passports seem to be waiting and hopeful that New 
Brunswick will be introducing a WHTI compliant Enhanced Drivers 
License (EDL).  There didn't seem to be any expectations that 
the state of Maine will be developing an EDL. 
 
¶5.  As expected, conversations with two hoteliers in St. Stephen 
revealed apprehension about the upcoming tourist season.  Both 
reported a decline in visitors in 2007 and they expected numbers 
to remain down this year.  Although WHTI's requirements were 
cited as factors, both acknowledged that the price of gas and 
the weak U.S. dollar were probably the biggest contributors 
keeping U.S. tourists from visiting New Brunswick these days. 
 
HOULTON/WOODSTOCK 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶6. The Houlton, ME/Woodstock, NB POEs stand in sharp contrast to 
their busy little neighbors two hours to the southeast.  The CBP 
and CBSA facilities are right on I-95 and the Trans-Canada 
Highway, and are designed to handle significant traffic. The CBP 
 
HALIFAX 00000028  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
facility has six processing booths, though no more than four are 
needed, even during peak travel hours.   Backups here are 
uncommon and traffic tends to flow smoothly in both directions. 
Unlike the towns of Calais, ME and St. Stephen, NB, which are 
separated by the width of the St. Croix river, Houlton, ME and 
Woodstock, NB are 15 miles apart. Thus, the POEs are several 
miles from residential and business centers as well, so backups 
don't tend to bring the towns to a standstill. 
 
¶7.   There is a NEXUS registration site in the Woodstock CBSA 
facility and staff members report a steady flow of new 
registrations - both Canadian and American citizens.  Despite 
the increased awareness of NEXUS in these communities, Port 
Directors on both sides report that there still aren't enough 
NEXUS card-carrying travelers to justify a NEXUS-only lane. 
With the exception of a handful of Canadian nurses who live in 
Woodstock and commute daily to Houlton, NEXUS cards are still 
pretty much a novelty at the Maine/New Brunswick POEs. 
 
¶8.  CBP Houlton is the central monitoring facility for a number 
of unmanned POEs along the northern Maine/New Brunswick border. 
These high-tech border points have  video monitors and finger 
scanners and can be used by pre-registered and vetted members of 
the community.  CBP is deservedly proud of these stations and 
they are a good example of how novel approaches can be used to 
meet WHTI requirements.  Without these remote stations, people 
living in these isolated communities might have to travel hours 
out of their way to cross the border legally at a fully-manned 
POE. 
 
¶9.  COMMENT:  The WHTI transition at the Maine/New Brunswick 
border is going smoothly.  Because of significant advance notice 
and flexible implementation, the end of oral declarations on 
January 31 went just like any other day at the border. 
Questions about when the new Calais/St. Stephen POEs will be 
operational are probably a bigger story in this part of the 
district than the upcoming passport requirements.  We can expect 
that any problems or delays with the opening of that bridge will 
be closely followed and widely reported on both sides of the 
border.   END COMMENT. 
FOSTER