Mayor hopes controversy over airport border office closure is finished
By Joel Wittnebel/The Oshawa Express
There’s been a lot said about the potential closure of the Canadian Border Services Agency office at the Oshawa airport, and many local politicians have voiced loud concerns over the abrupt decision that was made to shutter its doors. Now, the City of Oshawa and Mayor John Henry are attempting to change the tune and praising what they are labelling as enhanced services at the airport.
A release from the city notes that while the CBSA has “changed the model in which it provides staff” at the airport, services will be offered without disruption as officers will now be dispatched from other offices to meet any international flights coming into Oshawa.
The new arrangement also has Oshawa receiving 24-hour a day, seven days a week clearance service for commercial goods.
According to a statement from Goran Vragovic, the regional director general of the CBSA Greater Toronto Area Region, the Oshawa airport will be serviced by staffers at a central office at the Toronto Pearson International Airport. New technological advances also means clearance services are allowing many steps in the process to be done electronically.
“The decision to change how we deliver services in Oshawa was not taken lightly. It is the result of a long-term review of our operations,” Vragovic states. “As federal public servants, we regularly review our services to make sure we are responsibly managing Canadians tax dollars.”
Mayor Henry says he is encouraged by the changes.
“We have worked very hard, staff and our airport manager with support from the regional chair, to make sure we have in place everything that we need that maintains the integrity of our airport, our port and our businesses in the region,” he says. “I still have challenges with the way this was handled. We’ve conveyed that to the folks at CBSA.”
Mayor Henry said the city received a letter from the federal agency on Sept. 8 giving notice the airport office would close Sept. 29 with services to be moved to Billy Bishop Airport in Toronto and an office in Mississauga.
The seemingly abrupt and unexpected decision to close the office had local politicians infuriated and seeking answers.
Insult was added to injury during the Sept. 29 Question Period in the House of Commons, when Ajax MP Mark Holland, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, stated, “of course our officials did talk with the City of Oshawa, with the mayor, and made it very clear that services are going to be improving.”
Calling Holland’s comments “totally inaccurate,” Henry says he never had a conversation with the Ajax MP, and the city has written to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asking for Holland to retract his statements.
With that behind them, Henry hopes that the relationship can be repaired and things can move forward.
“Quite frankly, I’m tired of playing games with other levels of government because in the end it’s about people, and it’s about jobs, and it’s about an economy, and they need to remember, in this particular case, our port and our airport and our sufferance warehouses and our businesses that need customs, employ people that live in our communities throughout the region,” he says. “I’m happy to say, I think everything we need is in place and I will be honest with you, if we get complaints, they will get to the highest level they can get to at CBSA.”