‘Stay Free Alberta’ or ‘Checkpoint Charlie’? The Cost of Drawing a New Line
Medicine Hat, AB – Written by Kelly Allard
Let’s play a quick geography game. Look at a map of Alberta. See those dotted lines separating us from BC and Saskatchewan? Today, they’re basically just suggestions. If Alberta packs its bags and leaves Canada, those polite suggestions become a 2,000-kilometer-long “Keep Out” sign that we’d have to build, guard, and pay for.
From “Welcome” Sign to “Show Me Your Papers”
Right now, being Canadian means we have it easy. Our only real border is to the south with Montana, patrolled by the feds. We’ve got 13 crossings there, from the big-rig hub at Coutts to sleepy little gates that close at sundown. After separation, suddenly every trip to Grandma’s in Swift Current or a ski weekend in Fernie becomes an international affair. Those friendly provincial lines? They’d need full-blown border stations.
The Staggering Numbers Game
Current International Border: ~ 300 km (with Montana).
New International Border After Separation: ~ 2,000 km (wrapping around the entire province).
Current Crossings to Manage: 13 (with the USA).
New Crossings to BUILD from Scratch: At least 10 on the west, and over a dozen on the east(not counting the hundreds of township roads that would need to be blocked).
And they ain’t cheap. We’re not just slapping down a toll booth.
Saskatchewan Border
The Alberta - Saskatchewan border isn't just a line on a map. It's the 4th Meridian, a survey line that acts as the property line for thousands of farms. And on the prairie grid, a public road allowance runs every single mile along its length. That means there aren't just a dozen crossing points - there are hundreds of potential gates, from Highway 1 down to unnamed gravel lanes. Securing it wouldn't mean building a dozen booths. It would mean deciding which hundreds of backroads to bulldoze closed, which farms to cut in half with a fence, and how to patrol a 1,200 km strip of open field.
The “What’s in the Booth?” Breakdown (Or, Why It Costs a Fortune)
The Big Kahuna (Full Commercial Crossing – like a new Coutts):
Cost: $150-$400 million each.
The Gear: Think less “booth,” more “small airport.” We’re talking multiple inspection lanes, giant X-ray machines for trucks, warehouses to hold seized stuff, kennels for sniffer dogs, detention cells, and enough computer gear to make your head spin. It’s a small, angry industrial park.
The Middle Child (Medium Crossing - for a busy backroad):
Cost: $50-$100 million each.
The Gear: A few inspection lanes, a small building for officers, a basic fingerprint and document scanner, a secure lot to pull vehicles aside, and a whole lot of pavement and lights.
The “Why Bother?” (Minimal Crossing - for that one gravel road):
Cost: $10-$25 million each. (Yes, you read that right).
The Gear: A heated booth, a camera that reads license plates, a panic button, a security fence, and a very lonely guard. The real cost is running power and secure internet to the middle of nowhere.
Coutts Border Crossing- 2024 Google Maps
Add it all up, and you’re staring at a $2 Billion bill just to get started. And that’s before the inevitable cost overruns when they try to build a truck inspection plaza on the side of a cliff in Rogers Pass.
Thinking that Canada will not demand that Alberta pay for the border crossings on the Canada side is delusional. This is not an amicable divorce, this is a situation of “You wanted this, YOU pay for it!”
Staffing Costs: The Never-Ending Payroll
The Core Staff: You need Border Services Officers (BSOs). They're not mall security; they're law enforcement officers with arrest powers, trained in firearms, defensive tactics, law, and contraband detection. This is not a weekend or online course, this is 14 weeks of training at a government facility.
Let's Do the Less-Terrible (But Still Not Great) Math:
If Alberta builds 5 major, 8 medium, and 10 minimal crossings on its new borders, a pared-down, best-case-scenario staffing looks like this:
Major: 5 crossings x 35 officers = 175
Medium: 8 crossings x 15 officers = 120
Minimal: 10 crossings x 5 officers = 50
Total Rough Officer Count: ~ 345
Annual Payroll Cost (Just Officers, including their benefits & gear):
345 officers x $110,000 = $37.95 Million per year.
Payroll Source - Agreement between the Treasury Board and Public Service Alliance of Canada
But Wait, There's More! You also need:
Supervisors & Managers.
IT Gurus to keep the license-plate readers from spitting out error messages.
HR & Payroll Staff to deal with vacation requests and overtime.
Janitors & Repair Crews for when the -40°C weather breaks the pipes.
Armoured Car Services to move the collected cash.
Total Annual Operating Cost Estimate (All staff, upkeep, vehicles, tech): Even being super optimistic, we're still staring at $60 - $70 Million per year... and that's just to keep the new borders with BC and Saskatchewan running.
Don't Forget the Old Boss (The USA): We'd also have to take over the bill for the 13 existing crossings with Montana, which could easily add another $25 Million a year to the tab.
The Real Bottom Line
So, before we even buy a single "Welcome to Independent Alberta" sign, we've committed to writing cheques for roughly $85 to $95 Million every single year just to man the booths. It’s not a one-time fee; it’s the world’s most expensive subscription service, and you can’t cancel it.
Dreaming of independence is one thing.
Paying for the 2,000-km fence, turning grocery runs into international incidents, and figuring out if a cow in Lloydminster needs a passport is another. Before we start designing new licence plates, maybe we should figure out if we’re ready for the line at the border to be longer than the line at a free Stampede breakfast.
So Much for Freedom
Think the highway borders are a headache? That's just the ground game.
Coming up - The Owl Investigates - we look at how independence derails every train and grounds your travel plans.
Spoiler: "Open for business" doesn't apply to the skies or the rails.
New Border Crossings Needed
WESTERN BORDER (ALBERTA – BRITISH COLUMBIA)
North to South
Highway 43 / BC Highway 2 (Grande Prairie to Dawson Creek) Medium-to-Major
Highway 64 / BC Highway 77 (North of Manning) Minimal
Highway 35 / BC Highway 689 (Manning to Hotchkiss area) Minimal
Highway 40 (North) / BC Highway 40 (Grande Cache area) Minimal
Highway 16 (Yellowhead) (Yellowhead Pass) Major
Highway 1 (Trans-Canada) (Rogers Pass) Major
Highway 93 South / BC Highway 93 (To Radium Hot Springs) Minimal-to-Medium
Highway 940 / BC Highway 93 (Kananaskis access) Minimal
Highway 3 (Crowsnest) (Crowsnest Pass) Major
Highway 49 / BC Highway 3 (South of Coleman) Minimal
(Several other forest service roads exist but would likely be gated/closed).
EASTERN BORDER (ALBERTA – SASKATCHEWAN)
Major Highways (Full Stations):
Highway 1 (Trans-Canada) Near Walsh, AB.
Highway 16 (Yellowhead) East of Lloydminster.
Significant Secondary Highways (Medium/Small Posts):
3. Highway 55 Near Cold Lake.
4. Highway 45 / SK 41 To Unity, SK.
5. Highway 17 Lloydminster area (multiple points).
6. Highway 14 To Saskatoon.
7. Highway 12 To Battleford.
8. Highway 9 To Kindersley.
Minor Paved Roads (Minimal Posts or Closure):
9. Highway 28 To St. Walburg.
10. Highway 36 To St. Paul area.
11. Highway 41 South of Medicine Hat.
12. Highway 501 / SK 13 Manyberries area.
13. Highways 570, 562, 545, 537, 528, etc. – Dozens of secondary roads
14. Hundreds of Township & Range Roads – Would require barricades, gates, or cameras.
NORTHERN BORDER (ALBERTA – NORTHWEST TERRITORIES)
Much simpler, but still there
Highway 48 (Hay River Highway) – Medium crossing.
Highway 5 (Mackenzie Highway) – Has small dips across the border; would likely be fixed by a simple treaty land swap to avoid building a booth for a 2-km curve.
