We are a border town, and the border should stay closed. On Aug. 14, it was announced that the Canada U.S. border would remain closed for all but a few exceptions until Sept. 21. This was the fifth time that the border closure was extended.
Has the closure of the border affected Cornwall, definitely, more than many other Canadian cities of our size. According to Cornwall’s Division Manager of Cornwall’s Economic Development Department, Bob Peters, of nearly 2,500 visitors surveyed in 2019, roughly eight per cent were from the United States. This year, Peters states that that number has fallen to around one per cent.
This dip in numbers represents a significant loss to the tourism sector of our local economy, a sector already hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In addition to being a great place to visit, Cornwall is also an important logistical hub and luckily for us, commercial traffic has always been allowed through the border, but not without restrictions.
U.S. citizens are allowed to travel through Canada for work related purposes, or if they are travelling to their residence, which would be the case for U.S. residents of Alaska travelling from the contiguous states.
In July, Public Health Canada issued the following directives to U.S. residents travelling through Canada:
• avoid contact with others while in transit;
• remain in the vehicle as much as possible;
• not make any unnecessary stops;
• practice physical distancing at all times;
• pay at the pump if they need gas;
• use a drive-thru if they need food;
• wear a suitable mask or face covering while in transit;
• ensure good hygiene practices if they need to use a rest area; and
• only use services that are open to travellers along the direct route on which they are travelling.
My opinion is that these precautions and the border closure are necessary.
Our COVID-19 numbers are low. There are two active cases in the City of Cornwall. There are only three active cases in the United Counties of SD&G.
To give a perspective of how poorly the pandemic has been contained in the United States, at its lowest point this summer, on June 1, the United States had 16,040 new cases in a single day. On Saturday, Aug. 22, there were 46,163 new cases that day.
There have been 433,881 total confirmed cases in the state of New York since the start of the pandemic, and over 32,000 deaths. In Florida, where many Canadians travel during the winter, there have been 597,589 total confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic and 10,273 deaths.
For context, there have been 124,896 cases in the entire country of Canada as of Aug. 23, and deaths stand at 9,037.
Canada is smaller than the United States. We have about 10 per cent of their population. If the United States had handled the COVID-19 pandemic to the same level of effectiveness as Canada, then they should have proportionate rates of positivity. If the United States had the same positivity rate as Canada, they should have had around 1.2 million total recorded cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, but this isn’t the case. Since the start of the pandemic to Aug. 23, the United States has recorded 5.6 million cases of COVID-19 according to their Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
The border should remain closed, even though it is especially difficult for us as a border town. The alternative would be far worse.
Cornwall, Ontario, and Canada have our own significant challenges to worry about than U.S. citizens travelling across the border for nonessential reasons.
Hopefully after November, the U.S. finds the leadership to manage the pandemic on a unified, national level, but until they adequately manage their issues, the border should remain closed. The cost we are paying in losses to Cornwall’s tourism industry is a small price to pay when compared to the risk we would face by opening our borders to a country with no leadership, especially when it comes to combating the pandemic; a lack of leadership that has cost lives in the U.S. and has allowed COVID-19 to spread like a wildfire.
What do you think readers of the border closure? How have you been affected, email me a Letter to the Editor at nseebruch@seawaynews.media
