Americans missing in action in Manitoba despite open border

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This article was published 26/08/2021 (1219 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitobans haven’t seen much of their southern neighbours despite Canada having opened its border to Americans more than two weeks ago after 18 months of a lockdown.

“It’s not like we’re actually booming with Americans. It’s not like that at all,” said Min Lee, manager of the Morris Stampede Inn.

Normally, Americans stay at the hotel, which is in the town north of the Emerson border crossing, as they enter and leave Manitoba.

“We’re slowly getting some movement,” Lee said.

He’s noticed a few American families, but nothing like the pre-pandemic years when Americans regularly came north for fishing and camping trips.

Jessica Jackson, owner and operator of fishing destination Eagle Nest Lodge, has entertained about 30 Americans since the border opened to non-essential trips. She’d usually host from 100 to 120 guests in the same time frame, with the majority coming from the U.S.

“There’s certainly a lot of interest, but to be honest, there’s a list of things that they need to do before they can come in, and not everybody is willing to do that,” Jackson said.

On top of being double vaccinated, U.S. citizens and permanent residents must show a negative COVID-19 test; use ArriveCAN, an online application, to submit travel information; and prepare a quarantine plan.

“A number of (clients) are deciding to wait until next year, hoping that some of the requirements ease a little,” Jackson said.

As a result, the Lac du Bonnet fishing retreat’s 2022 calendar is booked with customers who’d initially planned trips in 2020.

In the first week after the border opened to non-essential travellers from the U.S., 10,471 travellers drove to the Prairie provinces, Canada Border Services Agency data show. That’s almost double the previous week when only 5,830 came through. The numbers include truck drivers who have been allowed to travel throughout the pandemic.

The border agency was unable to provide data on the number of people who entered Manitoba specifically.

“We haven’t seen (tourists) in so long,” said Sam Milne, manager of Morris Bigway Foods.

This month, Milne has observed a few Americans buying food in the store — it’s more than have been around throughout the pandemic.

Assiniboine Park Zoo doesn’t track where its visitors reside and doesn’t have concrete data on how many of this summer’s tourists have been American.

“Anecdotally, our staff have not noticed an increase in visitors from the U.S.,” Laura Cabak, Assiniboine Park Conservancy’s communications and public relations manager, said in an email.

Still, the number of American visitors to Manitoba beats last year’s figure. International travellers who crossed into the Prairies reached 4,734 in the second week of August 2020, a far cry from the more than 26,000 who entered during the same week in 2019.

Across Canada, 218,732 non-commercial travellers passed over the border in the first week it opened to Americans — more than double the 103,344 who made the trek a week earlier.

The Canada-U.S. border had been closed to non-essential travel from March 21, 2020 to Aug. 9 of this year.

On Aug. 19, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced its land border would remain closed to Canadians until at least Sept. 21.

gabrielle.piche@freepress.mb.ca