Border towns welcome U.S. day trippers as pandemic measures lapse

Eastern Ontario towns and cities along the Canada-U.S. border are excited to welcome back more of their American neighbours after pandemic border measures lapsed Saturday.

In late September, Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos announced the federal government would be dropping all remaining COVID-19 measures at the border Oct. 1.

Travellers will no longer be required to provide proof of vaccination when entering Canada and all testing, quarantine and masking requirements for travellers will also be dropped. Use of the controversial ArriveCAN app will become optional.

In the border city of Cornwall, Ont., bed and breakfast owner Robert Prowse said he's hopeful these changes will mean the return of cross-border tourists from nearby Upstate New York.

"Cornwall is an easy escape," he said. "I think we'll get more day trippers back."

Prowse has owned Auberge Chesley's Inn near the Seaway International Bridge for nearly a decade.

He said he's had a record-breaking summer this year, owing partly to the negative publicity surrounding delays at major airports that pushed travellers toward road trips instead of flying. He's hoping that trend will continue as Americans return in greater numbers.

"New York state, right across the river — it's an important market for us," said Kevin Lajoie, tourism officer for Cornwall Tourism. "That's pretty much been dried up for the last couple of years, so we're excited to see that return."

Lajoie said the decline in international tourism has been partly replaced by a record number of visitors from Ontario and Quebec, but cross-border tourism remains vital to the community.

"Our history and our location and our proximity to the States, it goes back so long that the idea of even just crossing the border to come here or us going the other way, it's just almost like a natural way of life here," he explained.

Nancy Vigeant, co-owner of Carrots n' Dates, a gluten-free restaurant and bakery in Cornwall, said about 10 to 15 per cent of her customers come from across the border.

"I honestly believe that we'll get more business now that they won't have to go through all the same questions and all of the protocols," she said. "I'm looking forward to it."

In Prescott, Ont., another border town on the St. Lawrence River, Nicole Hudson said about 20 per cent of her clientele at Katarina's Coffee Shop comes from small U.S. towns.

Hudson said she's grateful for local support during the pandemic, but she's looking forward to increased cross-border tourism.

"Once the border is really reopened, then that's an added extra customer base for us," she said.

Border measures caused headaches

For frequent cross-border travellers, pandemic restrictions have occasionally caused headaches.

Kirk Wrinn normally visits his cottage near the Titus Mountain ski resort about 60 kilometres southeast of Cornwall roughly three times per month, but the pandemic kept him away for two years.

"I went to check on it in March, got a false positive while I was there and got stranded at the cottage for five days," he said. "I had to leave my wife and kids back here in Canada without me."

Wrinn said while he got used to using the ArriveCAN app, he sometimes forgot to enter his information until the last minute.

"There has been times when I'm at the border quickly doing it on my phone," he said. "I have to pull the car over."

He said friends on the U.S. side have been reluctant to cross the border because of uncertainty around the restrictions, and he feels the measures could have been lifted at the beginning of the summer to help boost tourism.

Still, Wrinn said he's "looking forward to seeing our American friends back in town."