Long wait times at the Canadian border could be eased without costing taxpayers a dime, according to a new study out of the University of British Columbia.
Robin Lindsey, a professor at UBC’s Sauder School of Business, says the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) could cut wait times at the Peace Arch Border Crossing by shifting border guards into morning shifts and out of evening shifts.
“What we found was that what the CBSA should do is to re-schedule people from late in the evening to early in the morning. The reason why that can be advantageous is that it nips things in the bud. You prevent a queue from developing and last for the whole day,” Lindsey told Global News.
The low Canadian dollar has shifted patterns at the border, meaning many more Americans are coming north and are arriving earlier in the day.
The border has the most staff on shift at 2 p.m. in the afternoon, but Lindsey says the CBSA isn’t to blame for the “non-optimal” scheduling.
“I don’t think you can fault the CBSA too much for what appears to be non-optimal scheduling of its workforce, because queuing theory is intrinsically complicated and its also time bearing.”
Unexpected interruptions, like finding undeclared firearms for instance, can also throw any well-planned schedule out the window.
Even with the typical issues, the UBC study found border lineups could be 18 per cent faster if staff were shifted around.
For a wait of an hour and a half, an 18 per cent reduction would shave 18 minutes off the queue.
CBSA has asked UBC for a copy of their study but did not provide a comment to Global News on the issue.
–With files from Ted Chernecki
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