While it may have felt like an eternity to drivers who waited to cross into the U.S. last weekend, officials say wait times logged over the Labour Day holiday were actually not all that remarkable.
"We had some pretty expected kinds of waits for a busy holiday weekend," Mike Milne, spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said Tuesday.
At its peak – namely, on Saturday between 10 a.m. and noon – drivers waited up to two hours and 20 minutes to cross at both the Peace Arch (Douglas) and Pacific Highway borders.
The peak time, Milne noted, mirrored that seen in previous years, despite continued efforts to encourage travellers to: avoid the border during those hours, choose an alternate crossing or get trusted-traveller (Nexus) clearance.
Milne said things would also move faster if travellers simply had their ID ready when they arrived at the inspection booth.
Statistics from the weekend show an increase in both south- and northbound vehicle traffic compared to the same weekend in 2011.
Over the four days, U.S. officials processed 60,090 vehicles at the Peace Arch (Douglas) and Pacific Highway ports, compared to 57,988 in 2011.
The busiest Canadian port locally was the Peace Arch (Douglas) crossing, where officers processed more than 35,000 vehicles; at Pacific Highway, just over 30,000 vehicles crossed. Overall, Labour Day traffic at the district's five border crossings increased by 28 per cent over the volume seen in 2011.
Milne said the "bump" in numbers at the two Blaine crossings amounts to a three per cent increase over what was seen in 2011.