CBSA ends pandemic-related service reductions at smaller Alberta airports

Customs services are resuming at some smaller regional airports in Alberta after being suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a statement Friday, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) said officers would resume providing services at the Cooking Lake, Milk River, Ponoka, and Villeneuve airports after being paused since May 2020.

During the pandemic, only seven airports in the province had CBSA officers, including Cold Lake, Calgary International and Air Commercial, Del Bonita, Coutts/Ross, and the Edmonton International and Commercial office.

At the time, the federal government said the service disruptions were to limit the spread of the coronavirus and allow officers to be redeployed to other locations.

"The Canada Border Services Agency has been gradually resuming border services at airports still affected by the temporary measures put in place as a result of COVID-19," the agency said in a statement Friday.

Three days before the CBSA announcement, airline industry officials, stakeholders and government leaders called for reopening the facilities.

Jim Johannsson, director of the Cooking Lake Airport, said in a statement that although Alberta is home to more than 4,700 aircraft — the third largest in Canada- the province had the lowest number of reopened airports on a per capita basis.

"The tiny province of New Brunswick has one-tenth the number of aircraft as Alberta, yet has more airports open to international arrivals than we do here," he said. "It's not logical, and it's not fair."

Johannsson told CTV News Edmonton that last May, the Cooking Lake and Villeneuve airports requested for CBSA to resume providing services but was denied.

Cooking Lake and Villeneuve airports handle approximately 30,000 and 65,000 flights annually, respectively.

"By Canadian standards, they would be considered very busy general aviation airports," Johannsson said.

Shauna Feth, Alberta Chambers of Commerce president and CEO, said businesses rely on access to airports and that it was time to reopen them.

"Alberta businesses have waited patiently for Ottawa to reopen its' most critical airports to international arrivals only to see the priority given to docks in Ontario," Feth added. "There needs to be a level playing field."

"We understand Canadians have been eager to travel, and that's why together with air industry partners, we've been continuing to undertake a gradual easing of temporary measures to manage the pandemic," Minister of Public Safety Marco Mendicino said in a news release.

"(This) announcement will help facilitate travel and make it easier for those who rely on smaller airports from coast to coast to coast to receive the highest quality of service," Mendicino added.