Whatcom-B.C. border traffic will remain slow with Canadian coronavirus quarantines
It’s going to be a while before Whatcom residents can travel into Canada for sight-seeing and other non-essential reasons.
In a Tuesday, April 14, news conference, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the reality is it will be weeks before things might start to return to normal, including border travel. The Canadian government also imposed more restrictions for Canadians coming into the country, as each individual needs to have a 14-day quarantine plan, according to CTV News.
The five Whatcom County border crossings are only allowing trade and essential workers to cross, a plan that was first put in place by the U.S. and Canada on March 18 to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
The slowdown in traffic flow has been dramatic in places like Blaine. During the first two weeks of April, the two Blaine crossing saw just over 2,000 passenger vehicle entries into the U.S.; typically there are 155,000-160,000 passenger vehicles during this same time frame. That’s according to Laurie Trautman, director at Western Washington University’s Border Policy Research Institute.
Point Roberts is also dealing with a big drop in traffic and now has about 120 entries per day, down from a typical 2,300 entries a day, said Trautman.
Trautman said that going forward, it is difficult to tell how long the border restrictions will be in place.
“It’s starting to feel like Canada may keep them in place longer than the U.S.,” Trautman said in an email the The Bellingham Herald, adding that it is also probable that the U.S. and Canada could lift the restrictions at the same time.
Regardless of how the border reopens, Trautman said British Columbia is likely to continue its mandatory quarantine policy, which would effectively serve as a border restriction.
