U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced plans to reduce hours at four points of entry between Saskatchewan and Montana.

Those possible changes have the province worried.

The changes are set to take effect April 14 and under the changes, the hours for the Port of Raymond, Opheim, Scobey, and Morgan will be:

Port of Raymond - 6:00 am to midnight
Port of Opheim - 9:00 am to 6:00 pm
Port of Scobey - 8:00 am to 6:00 pm
Port of Morgan - 9:00 am to 6:00 pm

The biggest change is to the Port of Raymond which currently operated 24 hours per day and with the change people travelling from Saskatchewan to Montana who might need a 24-hour point of entry in the U.S. will need to enter through Portal, North Dakota. A drive of about 175 kilometres from the Raymond border crossing.

Minister of Trade and Export Development, Jeremy Harrison said that the border hours possibly being cut is concerning but it's not something new.

"It's important to remember this actually happened in 2016 as well," he said. "There was a proposal from the Department of Homeland Security very similar to the one that we are seeing right now. We at that point engaged with US lawmakers and we were successful and not just us but also engagement from state officials in Montana in having that decision rolled back. There are no guarantees that will happen, but I can tell you that we are engaged in taking it seriously because this is an important economic issue for our exports and to the United States."

U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a new release that they making these changes to cut workload and save money.

"CBP identified these ports for modification of operational hours to realign resources to historical and existing traffic volumes and workload. In doing so, CBP will be able to continue its mission and redirect valuable resources to ports with greater commercial and passenger volumes. This adjustment will allow CBP to maintain a reasonable level of service at these ports of entry."

"Very low traffic volumes during these proposed reduced hours along with fiscal responsibility with taxpayer money are a determining factor for the adjustment of hours at CBP ports of entry," said Area Port Director Daniel Escobedo.

Town hall meetings are scheduled in the Montana cities of Plentywood, Scobey, Glasgow and Malta this week.

Harrison said Saskatchewan MLA Larry Doke will be attending the town hall meetings.