Interim Mayor Travis Nelson signed a municipal proclamation declaring September 20 to October 13 as Culture Days | Fête de la culture in the Town of Shaunavon. Culture Days is a national celebration highlighting the importance of arts and culture in our communities. Shaunavon’s Culture Days Event Hub partners the Grand Coteau Heritage and Cultural Centre and Shaunavon Library have many Culture Days activities planned for you to enjoy!
We are calling all citizens in Shaunavon and the surrounding areas to action!
The purpose of this communication is to rally citizens, businesses and consumers to share our concerns about the current information from Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC – Prairies) indicating the CBSA’s potential reduction of hours of service at ports of entry across the Prairies. Information circulating suggests this reduction of hours is imminent, impacting over 20 ports in the region, which includes the close local border crossings.
To our knowledge, CBSA is moving forward with this project with little to no consultation with surrounding communities or stakeholders, and the USCBP appears to be following suit with similar changes on the U.S. side. The repercussions for families, local businesses, and community organizations with cross-border personal and commercial traffic will be severely affected with this reduction of hours.
Anyone concerned about these potentially devastating changes needs to ACT NOW. The Town of Shaunavon will be creating a template letter for citizens to utilize, sign, and send to CBSA and local MPs & MLAs, whose contacts are listed below. We will also be reaching out to municipalities throughout Southern Saskatchewan to forward this call to action, urging citizens across the prairies to ACT.
To voice your concerns we invite you to contact the following:
- CBSA Prairie Regional Director General Janalee Bell-Boychuck: janalee.bell-boychuck@cbsa-asfc.gc.ca
- CBSA President Erin O-Gorman: erin.ogorman@cbsa-asfc.gc.ca
- US Customs and Border Protection.
- Honorable Doug Steele, MLA Cypress Hills; steelemla@sasktel.net
- Honorable Jeremy Patzer; M.P. Cypress Hills – Grasslands; Jeremy.Patzer@parl.gc.ca
- The Honorable Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada; justin.trudeau@parl.gc.ca
We encourage you to reach out to Public Service Alliance of Canada personnel Marianne Hladun HladunM@psac-afpc.com and Brea Baresinkoff brea.bareskinoff@ciu-sdie.ca for more information, and to cc them in your email to officials.