AMERICA WILL PROHIBIT CANADIANS FROM CROSSING THE LAND BORDER TO THE U.S. FOR ANOTHER MONTH, A MOVE THAT CRITICS SAY WILL CONTINUE TO HARM BUSINESSES AND FAMILIES IN BOTH COUNTRIES.
Canadian travellers remain blocked for another month
America will prohibit Canadians from crossing the land border to the U.S. for another month, a move critics said Wednesday would continue to harm businesses and families in both countries, especially in tightly integrated border regions.
“What the U.S. administration has done today is to continue to divide families, and prevent people from coming to the U.S. for tourism or business,” said Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Perrin Beatty. “On social and on economic terms, it makes no sense whatsoever.”
The U.S. announced Wednesday it will continue to keep its land border with Canada closed to non-essential travel until Aug. 21. The current restrictions have been in place in both countries since the COVID-19 pandemic began, though Canadians have been able to fly into the U.S.
Canada said earlier this week it would begin allowing fully vaccinated American citizens and permanent residents into the country via any means on Aug. 9, but the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden declined to follow suit.
Goldy Hyder, president and CEO of the Business Council of Canada said in a statement that decision “makes no sense from a public health perspective and will hurt businesses and entrepreneurs on both sides of the border.”
A notice from the office of U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas noted the risk posed by new COVID-19 variants and said “returning to previous levels of travel between the two nations places the personnel staffing land ports of entry between the United States and Canada, as well as the individuals travelling through these ports of entry, at increased risk of exposure.”
The decision means Canadians won't be able travel to the U.S. by land for at least another month unless the trip is deemed essential, but fully vaccinated Americans will be able to come north for any reason as of Aug. 9.
Beatty said in an interview the decision “flies in the face of both science and most current public health data,” given Canadians are more highly vaccinated than Americans and the infection rate in Canada is “way lower.”
The most obvious economic consequence of the decision will be to stop Canadian tourists from going to border states, which will negatively impact states like New York, Washington and Maine, he said.
But it will also harm Canadians who might want to go to the U.S. for business trips, such as to do sales or follow up on contracts to provide services to American customers, Beatty explained.
U.S. congressman Brian Higgins said at a press conference Wednesday afternoon the economies of Ontario and Western New York are “deeply integrated,” including through the Buffalo Niagara International Airport, and professional sports franchises. Retail, arts and culture and health care are also “all tied to reliable, predictable access to and from Canada,” he said.
Rakesh Naidu, president and CEO of the Windsor-essex Chamber of Commerce, called the decision by the U.S. to keep the border closed “very disappointing.”
Naidu said in an interview that “a lot of businesses in Windsor-essex have either opened up a satellite office or have another location on the other side, or have business partners, have suppliers there. And they do business back and forth on a daily basis, on an hourly basis.”
Canadian businesses are at a big disadvantage when they can't send people across the border to take part in customer review sessions, to bid on new projects, or service equipment they sold to clients on the other side of the border, he argued. Not being able to see customers and clients face-to-face creates a barrier to doing business with Canadians, and U.S. companies may turn to American options, Naidu said.
The communities are also tightly integrated on a personal basis, meaning families have been kept apart. “There are so many people whose families are separated. I know someone who hasn't seen his mother in almost year and a half now,” he said, adding the restrictions have been “really made it very difficult.”
Asked about the U.S. lagging Canada in relaxing its border restrictions, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said at a Tuesday press conference the rules have always been “asymmetrical.” While Canada banned all non-essential travel, “Canadians have throughout the pandemic been able to fly down to the States for tourism, for secondary residences, for whatever reasons they want,” he noted.
“Canada is not going to any more dictate what the U.S. should be doing around its border policy than we would accept the U.S. to dictate to us around our border policy,” Trudeau said.
Higgins said he couldn't speak to what the rationale is for the Biden administration to keep the border closed. One possibility some have pointed to is that the U.S. is keeping the northern border with Canada closed because it doesn't want to open up the southern border with Mexico.
“The administration has not been forthcoming with any of this information to justify so we're all left to guess, to speculate what the reasons may be,” Higgins said.
WHAT THE U.S. ADMINISTRATION HAS DONE TODAY IS TO CONTINUE TO DIVIDE FAMILIES.