Spring flooding near border may compound problem: reeve

EMERSON, Man. — A municipal politician in southern Manitoba is expressing concern about the potential for spring flooding and how that might affect the flow of asylum-seekers into the province from the United States.

Greg Janzen, reeve of the Emerson-Franklin municipality, said RCMP and border patrol resources could be stretched if high water means refugee claimants are forced to walk further afield to get into Manitoba.

Janzen’s comments on Wednesday as the U.S. National Weather Service said there is more than an 80 per cent chance of major flooding along the Red River near the Manitoba border in the coming weeks.

On Wednesday, another seven claimants walked into the border town of Emerson and surrendered to local authorities, bringing the total number of asylumseekers arriving in the community since Jan. 1 to 111.

Janzen said more claimants are showing up during the week instead of on weekends, which is having an effect on available resources to handle them.

Local Conservative MP Ted Falk said he wants to see staff added to both the RCMP and the Canada Border Services Agency in the Emerson area, but not at the expense of diminishing emergency services for other riding residents.

Although dikes in both Emerson and nearby Dominion City have been built about half a metre or more above 1997 flood levels, Janzen said rising water levels could become an issue.

“What’s going to happen here if we get a flood and these people are still coming in?” the reeve said. “They’re going to have to be coming in even farther away from Emerson and that’s more open field.

Meanwhile, Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister announced the opening of 14 new emergency shelter spaces to house refugee claimants in Manitoba, and urged the federal government to roll out a plan to co-ordinate the Canadian response.