Border block called ‘spirit and soul crushing’
Communities on both sides decry U.S. move to keep land border closed
News that the U.S. would be extending restrictions on non-essential travel at land and ferry crossings landed with a thud in the community of Point Roberts, Wash., where businesses have struggled for months through a void left by Canadian visitors.
The U.S. border is to remain closed to most travellers until at least Sept. 21, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said on Friday.
It’s a move that not only roiled the border enclave, but politicians and public health officials who say the decision doesn’t make sense.
It prompted a blunt response from the Point Roberts Chamber of Commerce in the form of a news release on Friday that simply read “S.O.S.” in big, bold letters.
Point Roberts is just south of Vancouver and cut off from the U.S. mainland. The 1,000 or so residents rely heavily on visits from Canadians and the move on Friday means another full summer without them.
The U.S. announcement also comes little more than a week after Canada eased a 17-monthlong ban on non-essential travel across the Canada-U.S. border, on Aug. 9. Canada currently allows U.S. citizens and permanent residents into the country, provided they’ve been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
The U.S. border restrictions had been set to expire Saturday, although it does allow Canadians to fly across the border for non-essential purposes.
Brian Calder, the chamber of commerce president in Point Roberts, said the community feels ignored and misunderstood by the U.S. government.
“Shameful. Absolutely shameful,” he said during an interview Friday. “You gotta see it here on the ground to believe it. It’s absolute isolation. We’re like … inmates, locked down, and we did everything right.”
Normally, the community sees its population swell from 1,000 to 5,000 during the summer, Calder said.
He suggested there should be exceptions made for Point Roberts, where 87 per cent of the population is fully vaccinated and they have the ability to widely test people.
“We don’t want handouts — we want to earn our money,” he said. “It’s basically spirit and soul crushing, you know, what do you do?”
Meanwhile, to be eligible to enter Canada, visitors must live in the U.S. and have allowed 14 days to pass since receiving a full course of a Health Canadaapproved vaccine.
They are also required to show proof of a negative molecular test for COVID-19 that’s no more than 72 hours old and use the ArriveCAN app or online web portal to upload their vaccination details.
Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the University of Toronto, said the move by the U.S. was a political one, not one based on public health concerns.
“Like, why?” he said. “We don’t pose a risk to them, they pose a risk to us.
“If the reason is ‘we want to be careful about COVID-19,’ you would think there would be other corresponding measures within the borders, which are not being taken.”
The lopsided policy has rankled observers on both sides of the border.
“This creates confusion for travellers when all our members repeatedly tell us they are seeking predictability,” said Mark Agnew, senior vice-president of policy with the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. “This also distracts from the efforts that should be put into developing interoperable digital health credentials.”
New York Rep. Brian Higgins, who represents Buffalo, has said the U.S. policy “harms separated families and hurts opportunities for economic recovery.”
“It is beyond disappointing; it is hurtful both at a human and economic level,” he said.
Speaking to reporters Friday, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau said there’s “always been a certain asymmetry in the arrangements” along the border.
Canadians have been able to fly down to Arizona or Florida over Christmas, vaccinated or unvaccinated, all along, even “when we weren’t reciprocating,” Trudeau said.
“We are co-ordinating closely with the American administration, as we have from the very beginning,” he said. “But every country gets to make its own decisions about how to best keep their citizens safe.”