AMERICANS FLOOD TO BORDER
Long lines, long waits for travellers
BROCKVILLE Border officials ended job action in time to oversee vaccinated American tourists and property owners across the land border for the first time in nearly 17 months.
Fully vaccinated U.S. citizens and permanent residents were allowed to cross at 12:01 a.m. Monday for non-essential reasons for the first time since March 19, 2020, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
And with American property owners and tourists arriving in droves, there were lengthy delays entering Canada at border crossings across the country, including Thousand Islands at Lansdowne.
A wait time of about 90 minutes was what many faced Monday morning. In the afternoon, wait times fluctuated between one and three hours, according to the federal government's travel website.
Even with the waits, multiple American travellers said they had no complaints with the service and interactions with border officials. “I'm just happy to be in Canada after almost two years,” one added.
Also happy to have Americans crossing the border are local businesses.
“It can only mean good news,” said Bill Stewart, interim executive director of the Thousand Islands Gananoque Chamber of Commerce.
“We've welcomed a lot of staycationers from Ontario, and particularly Quebec the last few weeks. But now with the added bonus of having fully-vaccinated Americans coming in ... we're cautiously optimistic.”
What is left to happen now, he said, is for Canadians to be allowed to into the U.S.
The American government said last month that its land border would remain closed to non-essential travel until at least Aug. 21. It said COVID-19 poses an ongoing specific threat to human life or the national interest.
However, many officials on both sides of the border have called on the U.S. government to open the land border to vaccinated Canadians. With no date set by the U.S., both sides will continue to suffer, Stewart said.
“It is a mutually beneficial relationship,” he said.
The reopening of the border to Americans came a little over 48 hours after the Treasury Board and the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) reached a tentative agreement with the two unions representing border workers: the Public Service Alliance of Canada and the Customs and Immigration Union.
“We are relieved that CBSA and the government finally stepped up to address the most important issues for our members to avoid a prolonged labour dispute,” said Chris Aylward, president of the public service alliance.
“The agreement is a testament to the incredible hard work and dedication of our bargaining team, who worked through the night to reach a deal.”
The proposed four-year contract would be retroactive to the expiry of the last agreement in June 2018. After declaring an impasse in negotiations last December, the two unions held a strike vote in June.
The vote was successful, with a date of Aug. 6 set for the start of job action. The CBSA said 90 per cent of the unionized workers were declared essential, meaning they'd be required to work during the job action. That declaration resulted in a work-to-rule campaign.
However, the job action that began at 6 a.m. lasted only until late evening, when the tentative agreement was reached.
The new agreement calls for retroactive pay raises, better protection against excessive discipline in the workplace, and the creation of a National Joint Committee to tackle workplace culture problems at CBSA.
In a statement, Jean-Yves Duclos, president of the Treasury Board, and Bill Blair, minister of public safety and emergency preparedness, said the deal “recognizes the important work of border services officers.”