The Municipality of Emerson-Franklin, alongside the recently established Community Economic Development Committee (CEDC), has generated a pilot concept for the Emerson-Pembina Port of Entry (POE) Authority in hopes of growing economic activity in the area.

A concept paper released by the Municipality outlines the creation of a Port Authority, a federally incorporated, autonomous body that is governed by a board of directors. Its general purpose would be to run the daily operations and financials of the port and oversee the overall activity and development.

The Emerson-Pembina POE is the largest west of Windsor, Ont. There are more than two million international travellers and $20 billion worth of cargo processed through the port annually. On a daily basis over 1,000 commercial trucks pass through, according to the report.

"The importance of the Emerson-Pembina Port cannot be underestimated, being Canada's largest land-based Port of Entry in terms of trade values and the most significant surface based trade asset that we share with the U.S., west of Windsor, (Ont.). But it is currently underutilized and there are deficiencies," the concept paper said.

Currently, Canadian tax dollars exclusively fund the expansion and maintenance of the port's infrastructure, but an Authority would take on these financial responsibilities, among other tasks. It would also introduce a levied fee on commercial vehicles entering Canada, to assist in the development of the port; such a fee already exists for southbound commercial vehicles.

The Municipality and the CEDC are using other port authority plans from across the country as role models for their own.

Benefits highlighted in the report include employment opportunities, increased trade and currency flow, and a significant reduction in traffic congestion and delays -- therefore lowering fuel consumption and emission of vehicles due to shorter wait times at the border.

At the CEDC's introductory meeting in October 2018, the group noted that reasons, why this concept is important, is due to the need to boost and retain the local population. In order to do this, there needs to be improved revenue streams in the area, the CEDC said.

With a large POE in the backyard of Emerson-Franklin, the benefits should be more visible, said Simon Resch, chair of the CEDC.

"One would expect, as I do, to see some spinoff benefits, and there aren't any. That's a pretty acute and everyday problem... Governments feel the same way: the municipal government certainly, the provincial government, the federal government, and the agencies and entities that they work with and who work for them. We haven't managed to get any traction, however. Everybody seems to have a concept for development," he said.

Resch says it's a matter of organizing stakeholders since there are numerous groups to consider.

"The complexities that come with such a large stakeholder community have a tendency of sidelining development. That certainly has come out in some of the preliminary reports; that a poor stakeholder engagement environment and a lack of interagency coordination stymies development at entities such as ports of entry," he said.

Funding is another area of concern.

"We have conversations with operational decision-makers and political decision-makers, and the message coming back to us was very clear: Manitoba doesn't have quite as much money in its coffers as we need to activate the relevant components of the functional design," he said.

As for now, Reeve Dave Carlson says, "We need all the parties together to mould this and move it forward."