Oct 1st May Not End AMHS Prince Rupert Route: Rep. Ortiz Travels to BC to Meet with Canadian OfficialsBy MARY KAUFFMAN
September 14, 2019
Ortiz met with Royal Canadian Mounted Police Inspector Blake Ward Chief Financial Officer for Prince Rupert Corinne Bomben, Member of Legislative Assembly Jennifer Rice, City Councilors, and Mayor Lee Brain. Quoting a news release from Rep. Ortiz, the intent of these meetings was to find a solution to the current AMHS Prince Rupert port of entry requirements.
According to the Alaska Department of Transportation's announcement on Sept. 4th, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is requiring the Alaska Marine Highway Sysem to secure a Canadian law enforcement presence to protect Customs and Border Protection’s personnel in Prince Rupert while inspection tasks are performed. According to ADOT, all avenues for local law enforcement were pursued, but AMHS was not able to secure the staff necessary to fulfill this requirement. The new requirement specifies a Canadian law enforcement presence with the ability to make arrests in Canada, which is not a duty that AMHS staff are able to perform. Last spring, Customs and Border Protection began requiring a Canadian law enforcement presence in Prince Rupert. AMHS was granted a waiver through Sept. 30, 2019. Over the summer, AMHS worked with the City of Prince Rupert and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to meet this requirement, but according to the ADOT neither of these entities have staff available to perform the duties necessary to comply with the new requirement thus the announcement the Alaska Marine Highway System would be ending service to Prince Rupert on October 1st. After conversations in Prince Rupert, Representative Ortiz said he has been reassured that fulfilling the requirement is feasible and possible solutions will be presented to the Department and the Administration next week during meetings in Juneau. “I’m very heartened by the overwhelming sense of support from all of the government officials here in B.C. and their commitment to maintain AMHS access to Prince Rupert. I look forward to Mayor Brain’s visit to Juneau next week; it’s my expectation that he will come forward with very viable options for the State of Alaska to maintain year-round AMHS access to Prince Rupert,” said Representative Ortiz. Earlier on September 5th, Mayor Brain released a prepared statement announcing that he would be heading up to Juneau the week of Sep 16 to meet with top Alaskan officials in the Department of Transportation and the Governor's office. According to Brain, a variety of solutions have been identified that could see a permanent resolution to this issue, and Prince Rupert officials have been collaborating with various different organizations and institutions that are involved with this matter. The Prince Rupert Mayor said he has been attempting to organize a multi-jurisdictional meeting in collaboration with his colleague Robert Venables from the Southeast Alaska Conference - however with the amount of departments and people involved, it has proven difficult to get everyone in the same room. The good news is there are many people who are working on this issue at the moment with a true desire to find real solutions. With all that being said, Mayor Brain said, "I don't believe this is the end of the ferry service to Prince Rupert. I believe this issue can be solved. The demand for cross-border tourism and potential trade opportunities continue to be at the forefront of this conversation. I'm looking forward to my meetings in Alaska, and believe now is the time to solve this issue to ensure long term ferry service between our two nations."
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Edited by Mary Kauffman, SitNews
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