When the U.S. and Canada mutually agreed in March to shut down the border to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus, no one predicted it would be closed this long. There is still no specified date for its reopening, although trade has continued between the countries.
“There’s a closeness that we’re definitely missing, but I can tell you not anyone that I have spoken to here wants that border opened anytime soon. We miss you citizens of the U.S., but we’re not comfortable opening the border,” Bernadette Clement, the mayor of Cornwall, Ontario, said in an interview with CNN.
East to west for thousands of kilometres, in communities on both sides of the national divide, the border closure is redefining not just economic relationships, but personal lives, in ways no one expected.
“This really is going to have a long-term impact on our communities, economically, socially and on all the things that are really important to us,” said Tim Currier, the mayor of Massena, New York, a “sister” community to Cornwall, just several kilometres across the border on the other side of the St. Lawrence River.
No longer. The border is shut tight for any trips that are deemed “non-essential” or discretionary and that includes all recreation and tourism.
BIGGER PAIN ON CANADIAN SIDE OF BORDER
Statistics Canada recently reported that cross border car trips are down about 95% across both sides of the border.
For decades in these border communities, people have crossed the border in both directions every day to attend a school or training program, go on a shopping trip to grab a bargain, indulge a craving for a meal at a favorite restaurant or a last-minute trip to the casino to play the slot machines.
In a way, the border closure has been a victim of its own success. Essential goods and services have continued to flow across the border efficiently and easily with supply chains largely unaffected. Canada and the U.S. maintain one of largest trading relationships in the world, doing about $1.9 billion in trade every day.
While the rules apply equally in both countries, the economic pain has not been distributed evenly on the Cornwall-Massena divide.
“There is no question about the economic impact. We have small businesses that have not reopened, we have some that will never reopen because they rely heavily on Canadian traffic,” Mayor Currier said in a phone interview with CNN.
Mayor Clement says Cornwall is feeling the economic loss of American clientele but with a larger, more dynamic economy, the damage hasn’t been as acute.
And as infection rates climbed in the U.S., diverging from Canada’s flattened pandemic curve, just seeing cars with U.S. plates alarmed many Canadians.
“It has been challenging to keep everybody calm because residents took note of those plates, yes,” Clement said.
Whether in Cornwall’s Walmart parking lot or in its downtown business district, many locals told CNN they preferred the border stay closed for months to come given the higher infection rate in the U.S.
A July poll by Ipsos showed more than eight in 10 Canadians want the border to remain closed until at least the end of the year.
MOHAWK COUNCIL OF AKWESASNE: STRADDLING THE BORDER
“The challenge for us being right on the border is we see the surge in cases in the United States as a whole. Some states have more cases than the entire country of Canada. We have to be cautious about that,” Grand Chief Abram Benedict of the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne said in a phone interview with CNN.
The Mohawk of Akwesasne straddles the U.S. and Canadian borders and its 13,000 residents hold a unique position. They’ve maintained their right to travel between the two countries even during this pandemic.
When presenting their identification cards to prove Indian status, they can cross the border for essential travel in either the U.S. or Canada to shop, bank, go to a doctor or check on family members.
It also means they are exempt from a two-week quarantine when entering Canada.
Benedict says that means those with New York state licence plates are often seen in and around Cornwall. Most Canadians residents now understand they have a right to be there, but Benedict says his community has a greater responsibility to keep everyone safe.
An overnight curfew in Akwesasne is still in place with a ban on travel outside an 80-kilometre (50-mile) radius. Benedict adds that many in his community have been wearing masks long before it was mandatory in Cornwall.
In fact, new infections are low on both sides of the border, but the longer the border stays closed, the more profound the economic impact.
“I’ve got to make up for a 40% hole in my business,” said Todd Papineau, general manager of the Akwesasne Mohawk Casino Resort, in a phone interview with CNN, saying he doesn’t expect Canadians to be back from months.
Papineau says most of his 750 staff have been off work for about five months now, although he is trying to bring back about half of them for a proposed reopening later this month relying on local U.S. customers only.
“The worst-case scenario is this will still be with us this time next year, that’s what I believe; I hope I’m wrong,” Papineau said.
‘IT’S HARDER FOR BUSINESSES’
At Philos Restaurant in Cornwall, U.S. customers were a staple for the family-owned Greek restaurant and pizzeria. After five months, the restaurant just reopened to dine-in customers.
On a recent Friday afternoon, only one table was being served in a dining hall that can serve more than 100 customers. The extended border closure has meant that businesses that rely on U.S. customers are coming to grips with a decline in business for months to come.
“It is harder for businesses. We have fewer customers, and it’s a big change for people working in those businesses because they don’t know what to expect in the future,” said Nancy Page, a manager who’s been working at the restaurant for most of its two decades.
Some border communities, especially in the U.S., are lobbying for a path forward to try to get the border open using what they call a careful, slow, thoughtful process, taking advice from public health experts.
“I certainly respect Canada’s view, but what’s happening in Florida is not happening in New York and New Yorkers are taking significant steps to reduce the likelihood and the chances of infection cases increasing,” Currier said.
Many in Canada’s business community agree with him, arguing Canada should double down on rapid testing and that a two-week quarantine for months to come is unsustainable and will disproportionately impact leisure and hospitality.
“Some sectors have been pummeled and their very existence is at stake,” says Goldy Hyder, president and CEO of the Business Council of Canada adding, “I do think there needs to be a plan to work towards a reopening in a responsible way.”
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
