Businesses in the isolated U.S. border town of Point Roberts just south of Vancouver are calling on President Joe Biden to help them hire Canadians to fill a labour shortage.
Brian Calder, the president of the Point Roberts Chamber of Commerce, wrote an open letter urging the president and lawmakers to make an exception to U.S. work permit policies for Point Roberts.
Point Roberts is part of Washington state but juts out from the Canadian mainland south of Vancouver and is only accessible by land via the Canadian border.
Calder says while they’ve looked for American citizens from other parts of Washington state to come work, high rental costs and four daily border crossings are barriers.
They say they hope their government will address their concerns and allow them to temporarily employ Canadians with work visas.
“Point Roberts is unique … in North America. Well, where is the unique solution? Nothing,” said Calder.
The international border cuts the peninsula containing Point Roberts in half, turning what would otherwise be a suburb of metropolitan Vancouver into a secluded getaway in Washington state separated from the U.S. mainland. (Allison Cake/CBC)
‘Orphan of the United States’
Dave Duncan, 62, lives in Blaine, Wash., but has worked in Point Roberts for 10 years.
As the manager of Point Roberts International Marketplace, the only grocery store in town, Duncan goes through four border crossings a day to get to work
“It feels good working here. I feel like I’m making a difference in people’s lives helping them,” said Duncan, adding he was able to cross the border for work during the pandemic but was required to provide letters, additional forms, and complete ArriveCan every time.
Duncan says before the pandemic, there were at least six other Americans who committed to the same commute. But now, he says, there’s only two of them who travel from Blaine to Point Roberts.
“The requirement is people that work here have to be either U.S. citizens or dual citizens, and we’re kind of exhausting that pool of people,” Duncan said.
“[There’s] no real workforce left [here] because their jobs went away. Because so much of our business relies on people being able to get here, whether it’s from Canada or from the rest of Washington.”
Dave Duncan, who manages the Point Roberts International Marketplace grocery store, says he’s one of two people who commute to town from Blaine, Wash., and passes through four border crossings a day. (Brian Calder)
Nick Kiniski, 62, had been in Point Roberts for over 35 years when he bought Kiniski’s Reef Tavern, which is now the only remaining restaurant in town.
While business has increased with other restaurants closing down, Kiniski says he doesn’t have the staff to meet the demand, forcing him to reduce restaurant hours during both the tourist and off-season.
“By letting us hire Canadians, what’s the downside? I can’t even run seven days a week. I got limited hours,” he said, adding he’d love to hire Americans who want a job, but most aren’t willing to commute.
“There’s no place for them to stay, and then in the wintertime, I go down to a ghost staff because it’s so slow. I don’t understand how [the government] expects us to be a viable business up here.”
Kiniski says as people leave Point Roberts, cabins and homes are being listed as short-term rentals on Airbnb and Vrbo rather than being put up for rent.
He expands that this limits the staff he can call on for support, especially during the summer tourist season.
“It’s just astronomical to stay here. So I have people stay in my house to help me out [during busy times] … like on long weekends.”
The Early Edition8:30Canadian workers for Point Roberts
The Point Roberts Chamber of Commerce wants Canadians to be allowed to work in Point Roberts businesses again.
Calder says Canadians used to work in Point Roberts, but permission was rescinded by Homeland Security after 911.
“No one challenged it [back then] because we had enough employees here … [The program] was straightforward and relatively easy, and we need it back again desperately,” said Calder, adding he’s frustrated by the empty promises politicians have made.
“We’re the orphan of the United States of America … [Politicians] say … we’re going to be defined by how we treat our most vulnerable and our weakest. But we’re in that category now. So where is the help?”
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.
