Point Roberts residents start petition
Only people deemed to have essential reasons for travel are allowed across border
Stuck with limited stock and uncertain supply chains, a number of Point Roberts residents are lobbying for border restrictions to be eased so they can travel to Bellingham to shop.
At the moment, only people deemed to have essential reasons for travel are allowed across the border.
“I see statements that say ‘essential reasons like getting a prescription filled or going to a doctor appointment,’ ” Point Roberts resident John Beals said. “The key word is ‘like.’
“This is not an official list, this is a general statement.”
Beals has begun a petition asking that essential travel should include people from Point Roberts who want to travel the 40 km to the Peace
Arch crossing and back with zero stops along the way.
Many would like to be able to drive to Bellingham to pick up lumber supplies for home renovations or food and baking supplies. Both the hardware and grocer in Point Roberts have limited selections, Beals said.
“There are several items that are just not being delivered to the local grocery store. At one point it was (toilet paper). Now, it’s flour and yeast, and always disinfectant wipes.
“No one sold masks here until a private citizen started offering them. We should wear masks and disinfect surfaces, but how? We can’t get these items here.”
One couple Beals knows was turned away from the border because while the husband had a doctor’s appointment in Bellingham and was fine to cross into B.C., his wife’s desire to be there with him was not considered essential.
“She was going with him for support and to make sure she had all the information for his medication and everything else,” Beals said. “They said she needed a note from the doctor to say she needed to be at the appointment.”
The couple turned around, he dropped her off, and he headed to Bellingham by himself.
“You would think it would be essential for a spouse to go on an appointment like that. It would certainly bother me if I couldn’t be there for my wife.”
According to the Canadian government, non-essential travel includes tourism, recreation and entertainment. Essential travel includes to work or study, critical infrastructure support, trucking, shopping for medicine and medical care.
In reply to an email to U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene of Washington’s 1st Congressional District, her office wrote Beals: “The Canadian government has not provided as exhaustive of a list, but generally have been following the U.S. list.”
There are two options besides using a car to get to Bellingham, Beals said. San Juan Airlines has a small passenger service on Tuesdays, or a private boat can be hired.
None of the town’s roughly 1,300 residents has tested positive for COVID-19. The fire station has carried out tests every Saturday and about 320 residents have been tested so far, said Christopher Carleton, fire chief of Whatcom
County Dist. 5.
The number of people crossing the border in and out of Point Roberts has dropped by about 97 per cent from what traffic would normally be, he said.
As of Friday afternoon, 1,724 people had signed Beals’ petition to shop in Bellingham without stopping in B.C. He will send it to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Delta MP Carla Qualtrough, DelBene in Washington, as well as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
“We want to work with our (Canadian) neighbours and do everything the right way,” Beals said. “I’ll send it off and then it’s up to them to decide what they’re going to do, if they’re going to do anything.”