Should Whatcom County expect a large number of Canadians to cross once the border reopens?
A number of Whatcom County businesses have been waiting nearly 19 months for Tuesday’s announcement from the White House that the U.S. will reopen its land border crossings to vaccinated Canadians for non-essential purposes in November.
Whatcom County Executive Satpal Sidhu called the announcement “welcome news for our businesses, which have been missing their Canadian customers.”
But how big of an impact should Whatcom County expect? Is it time for one last stock up at Costco and Trader Joe’s in Bellingham before the stores become more crowded as they were before the border closed?
Fortunately, there is not a whole lot of precedent to look back on and say for sure.
Until March 21, 2020, when both countries decided to restrict non-essential travel due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the two countries had done a good job of living up to the inscription, “May these gates never be closed,” located inside the Peace Arch that straddles the international border just north of Blaine.
But seeing as how Canada beat the U.S. to the punch and began allowing vaccinated Americans to cross for non-essential reasons two months ago, there is some data that gives a possible idea of what to expect.
And judging by numbers published by the Canada Border Services Agency, Whatcom County businesses that once saw a hearty dose of Canadian shoppers shouldn’t expect things to return to normal all at once.
In the eight weeks between Aug. 9, when Canada began allowing vaccinated Americans to cross for non-essential purposes, and Oct. 3, Canada welcomed approximately 27,550 foreign nationals per week through its Pacific Region border crossings, which include the five points of entry from Whatcom County.
While that’s more than 2½ times the average 10,618 foreign nationals to cross during those same eight weeks in 2020 when non-essential travel was restricted, it’s about a quarter of the weekly average of 100,100 crossings from 2019 before the pandemic.
