U.S.-Canada border closure extended to Dec. 21 — ‘these measures are with us for a while’
Canadian Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Bill Blair announced Thursday in a tweet that the closure of the border between the U.S. and Canada has officially been extended another month until Dec. 21.
“Our decisions will continue to be based on the best public health advice available to keep Canadians safe,” Blair said in the tweet.
U.S. Acting Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Chad Wolf tweeted out similar sentiment from the American side of the border Thursday, Nov. 19, adding that the border closure with Mexico also was being extended through Dec. 21.
“We are working closely with Mexico and Canada to keep essential trade and travel open while also protecting our citizens from the virus,” Wolf’s tweet stated.
The two countries first agreed to close the border to non-essential travel beginning March 21, and have extended that restriction on a month-by-month basis. Blair’s announcement officially marks the eighth such extension.
The closure was last extended Oct. 19 and was set to expire Saturday, Nov. 21. Tourists and cross-border travel is currently prohibited, while commerce, trade and vital health workers are among those allowed to cross between the two countries.
It is not known when the border will re-open, but Canadian ambassador the U.S. Kirsten Hillman hinted it could be here for a while, according to a radio interview Wednesday with Oregon Public Broadcasting.
“The pandemic seems to be escalating in both of our countries,” Hillman said, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting. “That would seem to suggest that these measures are with us for a while.”
Hillman added during the interview that she was open to hearing proposals from businesses and trade groups in the Pacific Northwest for how to ease the border closure safely in the future, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported. One such pilot project was just launched in Alberta and uses rapid COVID-19 testing to shorten quarantines for travelers.
In a subsequent interview, Hillman said it was difficult to set specific benchmarks the two countries need to pass in order to get the border reopened, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported.
“There aren’t specific metrics where we can say, ‘If it hits X level, we’ll make Y decision,’” Hillman said, according to the report. “That’s not how it works. It’s a little bit more of a conversation.”
COVID numbers update
The numbers on both sides of the border do not signal a reopening coming anytime soon, as both the U.S. and Canada are seeing big increases during the fall surge.
As of Friday morning, Nov. 20, the United States was hardest hit country in the world during the pandemic with more than 11.7 million confirmed cases and 253,000 related deaths, according to the John Hopkins University COVID-19 dashboard. Canada, meanwhile, was 30th overall with 319,175 cases and 11,314 related deaths, but a number of provinces, including British Columbia, have repeatedly set and broken daily caseload records in recent weeks.
According to the British Columbia COVID-19 dashboard as of Thursday, Nov. 19, the province has seen 24,958 total cases during the pandemic and 321 confirmed deaths — an increase of 13,769 cases and 70 deaths since the last border extension was announced Oct. 18. With a population of approximately 5.1 million, British Columbia has seen an infection rate of 270.0 cases and 1.4 deaths per 100,000 residents since Oct. 18.
The Washington State Department of Health, meanwhile, reported 137,411 confirmed cases and 2,603 related deaths on Thursday — an increase of 39,210 cases and 364 deaths since Oct. 18. With a population of approximately 7.5 million, the state has averaged 522.8 cases and 4.9 deaths per 100,000 residents since Oct. 8.
Economic impact
Whatcom County is certainly feeling the economic impact of the border closure, which now prepares to enter its eighth month.
The Western Washington University Border Policy Research Institute has found that Canadians comprise approximately 75% of cross-border travelers to and from Whatcom County, depending on the exchange rate when the border is open, according to information Director Laurie Trautman emailed to The Bellingham Herald for an earlier story.
In 2018, that would have represented approximately 10.5 million southbound Canadian travelers through the Blaine, Lynden, Sumas and Point Roberts points of entry.
Those Canadians represent a large portion of consumers in Whatcom County — anywhere from 2% to 46% of the weekend customer base Whatcom County retailers see, Trautman reported, adding that the average is about 17%.
Essential travel between the two countries is still allowed, though, and that includes transportation of freight.
According to U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics published Sept. 23, $91 billion in transborder freight was transported between the U.S. borders with Canada and Mexico in July — that was up 10.9% from June and 62.2% from May 2020, but still down 11.2% from July 2019.
Trucks hauled $26.2 billion worth of freight between the U.S. and Canada in July, according to the transportation statistics — up 3.2% from June but down 4.5% from July 2019. Trains hauled another $6.4 billion between the U.S. and Canada — up 12.4% from June but down 17.6% from a year earlier.
