Federal spotlight sought for local border concerns

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This article was published 09/03/2022 (1022 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

EMERSON — The Grey Goose vodka bottles have sat unsold in the duty free store for two years.

A full table of hard liquor was among the retail items greeting federal Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino as he met local business owners and the Emerson-Franklin Municipality reeve Thursday afternoon.

Simon Resch, the shop’s co-owner, was ready to tell Mendicino how two years of the COVID-19 pandemic — and a recent protest blocking cross-country trade — has decimated his sales. He’s calling for change, including to Ottawa’s travel requirements.

Emerson was among Mendicino’s tour stops. He was speaking to Canadian businesses near the U.S. border about their struggles.

“The land border duty free industry has not been able to pivot the way other industries have,” Resch said.

Since March 2020, the average duty free shop has lost 90 to 95 per cent of its revenue, according to Barbara Barrett, Frontier Duty Free Association executive director. The sites are federally regulated and must sell to people leaving the country, she said.

Resch’s warehouse is stocked with alcohol he hasn’t been able to shelve for years — nobody’s buying the products out front, he said. Beer, chocolates and beauty products have expired and been discarded.

The requirement to provide a negative COVID-19 antigen test when entering Canada, taken within 24 hours of crossing, has kept people from crossing the local land border, Resch said.

“I think (the requirement has) actually become more cumbersome and more restrictive,” he said, noting the turnaround time to get a test is faster than the 72 hours granted for a polymerase chain reaction test, which was previously mandatory for crossing.

Manitoba has dropped proof of vaccination requirements, and the province’s mask mandate is set to expire March 15. Manitobans will no also longer need to isolate after testing positive, as of that date.

“If we don’t need a test to go to a restaurant in Winnipeg, I don’t need a test to go to Pembina (N.D.), get the mail and come home,” Resch said. “I’m very frustrated.”

Part of his shop was under renovation Thursday. It will become a restaurant with wood-fired stoves — a new source of revenue.

Resch invited Mendicino to cook the first pizza when the site opens.

The federal minister did not say when the travel test requirement will end. But, Ottawa has eased procedures “at the right time,” he said.

“As case counts have come down, as more people get vaccinated — and we shouldn’t gloss over that fact — we are in a position to ease,” Mendicino said. “Hopefully, we’ll have more to say, but in the meantime, we’re going to keep lines of communication open (with border businesses).”

Canadians will largely stay away from the U.S. border until tests are scrapped, Barrett said. “A lot of the time, people are like, ‘It’s too confusing, I’m not going to bother.’”

Duty free stores saw an uptick in traffic pre-Omicron variant, when the government dropped the negative PCR test requirement for trips under 72 hours, Barrett said.

“We were like, ‘OK, we’re going to get on the road to recovery,’” she said. “(Then) they put it back on again when Omicron hit. You could just see the tap get turned off.”

She said the FDFA understands restrictions are important to curb the spread of COVID-19. Shops have listened, while throwing out “hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of product.”

“I’m getting calls every day (from business owners saying): ‘I don’t know how I’m going to pay my heating bill; we may lose our house,’” Barrett said.

Mask and proof of vaccination mandates ending in certain provinces should signal an end to the travel test requirement, she added.

On Thursday, Emerson representatives proposed a recovery fund for duty free stores.

“I am going to take that proposal back to my colleagues,” Mendicino said. “I know that it’s been a really tough go.”

Emerson-Franklin Reeve Dave Carlson noted the roughly $70-million per day trade that was halted while anti-mandate protesters recently blocked the land border.

“I think COVID has really underlined how important our borders are, and our crossings,” Carlson said.

The federal government enacted the Emergencies Act, resulting in a clear-out of border occupations Feb. 16.

Resch said he appreciated the move — the protesters blocked all potential customers, and he wouldn’t be able to keep his heat on.

“We couldn’t trade at all,” agreed Jeff French, co-owner of Runnin’ Red Transport.

His company was behind on 10 days’ worth of orders, between the protest and winter storms, he said.

Elsewhere, the Winnipeg Airports Authority also called for changes to travel mandates.

“Testing remains an impediment to getting people moving again,” Tyler MacAfee, WAA vice-president of communications, wrote in an email.

“Restrictions were important in the early days of the pandemic as we developed an understanding of how the virus was transmitted,” he wrote.

“However, we have now reached a point where restrictions are being lifted across the country and we think it is time for the federal government to do the same for travel.”

gabrielle.piche@freepress.mb.ca