In The News

Online border wait times are anybody’s guess

EMERSON, Man. -- If you’re heading to the border, it could take a bit of searching before narrowing down an accurate wait time estimate.

Border crossing times posted online by the Canada Border Services Agency are not very accurate and the agency does not have a standard protocol for measuring wait times.

Through the Access to Information Act, the Canadian Press obtained internal documents from the CBSA, which revealed the agency is aware of the inaccuracies in its online border wait time estimates. Wait times posted on the CBSA website are mostly personal judgments made visually by an individual at each of Canada’s 22 individual border crossings.

Getting an estimate might not matter to some truckers who have to take a load across the border regardless how long the wait will be, but for the curious there are other alternatives.

The CBSA border wait time website provides links to eight other websites with wait time estimates, including the U.S. Customs and Border Protection site, which will also tell you how many lanes are operating.

-- with files from the Canadian Press