U.S. Border Opens: Lineups to Enter British Columbia

U.S. Border Opens: Lineups to Enter British Columbia

August 9, 2021 Jim Byers

Canada flung open its borders to fully vaccinated U.S. visitors this morning, and Canadian businesses are hoping to reap the rewards.

“Let’s get this thing going,” Joel Villanueva, owner of Primo’s Mexican Grill in White Rock, British Columbia told USA Today. “A lot of our customers are from the United States, and we are literally minutes from across the border. We welcome our Americans, and we depend on their foot traffic.”

Global News reports the border was busy this morning, with vehicles waiting over an hour to cross into B.C. Border officials opened a third lane at the Peace Arch border in Surrey, B.C., around 6 a.m. PT.

Thomas Reid, operations manager at Palatine Hills Estate Winery in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, told the Globe and Mail that U.S. visitors account for as much as 25% of the winery’s guest traffic in the peak summer season, when most Canadian tourism operators make the vast percentage of their profits.

“As soon as the borders shut, that dried up to zero,” Reid said.

It’s great that Americans with two recognized vaccine doses can now visit without having to quarantine, but Reid said he’s not expecting a sudden deluge of travellers driving over the Niagara River.

“I’m a lot more cautiously optimistic about a gradual increase than a massive uptick right away,” he said.

CTV News quotes Cindy Ady from Tourism Calgary as saying the border change is already having an impact.

“We are seeing more interest and our phones have begun to ring,” Ady told the network. “So now we are looking at winter and obviously we have a very robust winter ski season that comes in to Alberta and through our city, as well as different groups that would choose to hold their business meetings here. It should be exciting.”

The local hotel association doesn’t expect the rule change to erase the losses suffered during the pandemic, but director Sol Zia does believe it’ll help.

“The average non-domestic traveller spends at least 40 per cent more than a Canadian domestic traveler,” he said. “We’re basically crawling out of where we were a year ago, and it could be a long climb…this is a start.”

As of today (Aug. 9), fully vaccinated Americans and permanent U.S. residents can drive or fly into Canada without having to quarantine. They do, however, need to submit proof of vaccination and other travel details to the Canadian government’s ArriveCAN platform at least 72 hours before arriving in the country. They also are subject to random COVID-19 testing after they arrive.

While the Trudeau government in Ottawa is allowing vaccinated Americans over the border, the Biden administration still hasn’t said when Canadians will be drive into the U.S. The current U.S. ban on Canadians heading to the States by car is in effect until at least August 21.