Residents of a small B.C. border town want permission to share a bubble with their Alaskan neighbours during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Stewart, B.C., with a population of about 400 people, acts as a service centre for Hyder, Alaska, which has a population of about 80. It is located at the southern end of the Alaskan panhandle of the Canada-U.S. border, which has been closed to non-essential travel since March 21.
“When the restrictions went into place in March, nobody thought that four-plus months later, here we would be with the same restrictions,” said Stewart Mayor Gina McKay who, at the outset of the pandemic, promised to support the people of Hyder.
“They’ve essentially been stuck over there, [and] it’s really taking a toll on their community.”
Here is the mayor of Stewart, B.C., promising her community will look after the residents of Hyder, Alaska if they are cut off by the Canada-U.S. border closure, even if it means leaving supplies at the crossing. “We are one community.” <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/covid19?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#covid19</a> <a href=”https://t.co/Um2FslxU0T”>pic.twitter.com/Um2FslxU0T</a>
Hyder is not connected to other parts of Alaska by road. The border is monitored by Canadian agents, with no U.S. agents on site.
Carly Ackerman, a dual citizen who lives in Stewart, said the CBSA is ensuring people who cross from Hyder into Stewart are following all the rules, including the mandatory 14-day quarantine.
Ackerman said she recently crossed over from her home in Stewart to a property she owns in Hyder. Upon returning to Stewart she was told to quarantine for 14 days, in compliance with national guidelines.
“They checked up on me twice to make sure I was isolating in place,” she said. “They’re following the rules.”
Hyder residents, Ackerman said, are being limited to short trips into Stewart for supplies and essentials, and are only allowed to visit once every seven days — making it difficult to go about their daily lives.
“We have Hyderites who are not being permitted to cross the border to get firewood,” she said. “We have people in Hyder who rely on family to come across the border to help them with their gardens, help them with their fishing and get things ready to fill their freezers and storage pantries for the long winter ahead.”
According to the Canada Border Services Agency, “healthy, non-symptomatic individuals for whom crossing the border on a day-to-day basis is essential for work and daily life, are still permitted to cross the border.”
In an email to CBC, the CBSA said crossing the border to get groceries, medication or fuel would be an example of essential travel, but declined to comment on the specifics of the Hyder situation.
Ackerman has helped create a cross-border committee petitioning for these limitations to be lifted for locals wanting to travel between Hyder and Stewart, arguing they should be recognized as “integrated trans-border communities.”
To underline the point, members are posting photos of gatherings and get-togethers from years past under the title “two countries, one community.”
B.C.’s provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry expressed support for the proposal on Tuesday when asked about it, but she emphasized it would ultimately be a federal decision.
“I think it sounds like a reasonable thing,” she said. “But this is something that needs to be taken up with the federal government.”
Residents of Hyder, Alaska and Stewart, B.C. are shown in 2015 protesting a proposed reduction of border hours. Today, residents are petitioning to allow unrestricted crossings for locals during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Wes Loe/Hyder AK & Stewart BC COVID-19 Action Committee)
Henry said her one concern is the recent increase in cases of COVID-19 from Alaska, but Ackerman pointed out that Hyder itself is isolated from the rest of the state and therefore unlikely to be impacted.
“We’re asking for a small group of people who live together in a remote place to be able to do their everyday function of life.”
Mayor McKay said the same, pointing out the only way for people in Hyder to get anywhere else in Alaska is by crossing through Stewart.
“They haven’t gone anywhere, they haven’t left, they can’t travel anywhere, even in their own state,” she said. “We are all in the same bubble.”
Ackerman said the petition asking for an international border bubble to be allowed has been sent to Canada’s minister of public safety Bill Blair, and she’s hoping for a prompt response.
“I’m optimistic that when we find that right person and get them to look at this little community, how remote we are, how unlikely we are to transmit COVID to other Canadians from here, I think it will be easier to understand.”
As the Canada-U.S. border remains closed, some residents of a remote B.C. community want to bubble up with their Alaskan neighbours. 10:54
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.
