Tim Leeds Havre Daily News tleeds@havredailynews.com
A grassroots committee says it has gathered nearly 2,000 signature so far in support of expanding hours at the Wild Horse border port north of Havre, signatures they will use to support federal legislation proposed to do that. “We’ve made everybody understand we are for the 24-hour port,” said Bob Sivertsen, an organizer of the 24-Hour Port of Wildhorse Citizens Committee. Another committee, co-chaired by Havre Mayor Bob Rice and former Medicine Hat, Alberta, Mayor Garth Vallely, has commissioned studies now underway to show how making Wild Horse a commercial port open 24-hours-a-day will impact traffic and commerce in the province and in Montana. The committee intends to use the studies to show the federal governments in the United States and Canada that the change in status is justified. Sivertsen said his group has collected more than 1,700 signatures on petitions for the effort, petitions which state the undersigned want the hours extended to 16-hours-a-day on a yearly basis. According to Sivertsen this will help increase the traffic numbers to justify a 24-hour port. Rice said he thinks the petition will help support the bill proposed in Congress by U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., to make Wild Horse a 24-hour commercial port. “I think anything helps; any time the community gets involved it helps,” Rice said. “I think this (expansion of hours) is a good thing for Havre and it’s a good thing its moving forward.” Tester on Nov. 5 sponsored legislation that would direct the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security to make Wild Horse a commercial port open 24-hours a day, as requested by the Wild Horse Border Committee comprising Rice, Vallely and six other Havreites and six other Albertans. Aaron Murphy, press secretary for Tester, said any support for increasing the hours of the port will help the senator’s bill when it comes up for debate. “A lot of folks in Havre have called for expanded hours at the Port of Wild Horse. Their support will go a long way in helping Jon's legislation, and he appreciates that,” Murphy said. “Like most things worth fighting for, this may not be a cakewalk. That's why Jon figured he’d go straight for the 24-hour, commercial status.” Both committees have been pushing for increasing the hours at the port, which would allow easier access for private and commercial traffic into and out of Canada. Businesses in Alberta, especially businesses involved in extracting petroleum from the rich oil sands in northeastern Alberta and from the oil fields near Medicine Hat, have been pushing to make Wild Horse a 24-hour commercial port. That would give them a direct shot from the oil fields to businesses in the United States, members of the Wild Horse Border Committee have said. The committee members have also said the oil interests in Alberta are not interested in less than 24-hour commercial status at the border crossing. Businesses now detour to the heavily used and often delay-ridden Port of Sweetgrass/Couts north of Shelby to have the 24-hour commercial access. More than 2,000 trucks take that route to and from the Albertan oil fields daily, committee members said. Wild Horse now has limited hours, open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. from Oct. 1 to May 14 and from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. from May 15 to Sept. 30. It is open to commercial traffic by permit only. The governments of the state and province have both come out in favor of the 24-hour commercial status. Earlier this year, in nearly unanimous votes, the Montana Legislature approved HJ3, a joint resolution written by Rice and Vallely’s committee and proposed by Havre’s Rep. John Musgrove, a member of the committee, asking the federal government to make Wild Horse a 24-hour commercial port. Gov. Brian Schweitzer has come out in support of HJ3. The provincial government of Alberta earlier passed, in a unanimous vote, a similar resolution proposed by Member of the Legislative Assembly Len Mitzel, also a member of the committee. Sivertsen, who started circulating the petition the week before Tester sponsored the new bill, said he would have put 24-hour status as the goal of the petition if he had known the legislation would be proposed. Sivertsen and and committee co-organizers Jim Treperinas and Bob Kaul said several times before Tester sponsored his bill that Montana’s congressional delegation would not sponsor legislation that broad. They suggested increasing the hours of the port to 16-hours-a-day, yearround, until traffic increased to justify 24-hour status, citing comments from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which administers the port, that the amount of traffic does not justify 24-hour status. Customs and Border Protection has also said that the amount of traffic does not justify 16-hour status. Now that Tester has proposed 24-hour status for the port, Sivertsen said his committee supports the bill and will send the senator the petitions in support of it. He added that he doubts that commercial status, eliminating the need for trucks to have special permits to go through the port, is possible at this point. “What I think its going to boil down to is two separate issues ,” Sivertsen said. “ If our congressional delegation can get that it would be tremendous for our area, but we’re trying to be realistic.” In a press release, Sivertsen’s group said they are distressed because they have heard that the Havre Area Chamber of Commerce is discouraging people from circulating the petition. Representatives of the Chamber said they have not discouraged anyone, they just want people to know whose petition they are signing. Chamber President Tom Rygg said the Chamber simply wants people to know that it is the 24-Hour Port of Wildhorse Citizens Committee, not Rice and Vallely’s committee, that put out the petition. “The two committees are trying to accomplish the same goal but going about it in different directions,” Rygg said, adding that there seems to be confusion from business owners and people who see the petition about which committee put the petitions out. Chamber Executive Director Debbie Vandeberg said she has no problem with people displaying the petition and people signing it, “as long as they read the petition and know what they are signing.”
