Groups welcome removal of border restrictions

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This article was published 27/09/2022 (1241 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The pending removal of federal COVID-19 border restrictions and measures was met with excitement and optimism from groups in Westman on Monday.

It was announced on Monday morning that as of Saturday, vaccination requirements and the use of the much-maligned ArriveCAN smartphone app would no longer be necessary for travellers entering Canada from outside of the country.

On top of that, mask usage will no longer be federally mandated on planes and trains.

According to James Montgomery, the general manager of Brandon Tourism, the ArriveCAN app has dissuaded some Americans from visiting the country.

Speaking to the Sun by phone while returning from a trip to Minnesota, Montgomery said that people in the U.S. asked him several times upon finding out that he’s Canadian if the use of the smartphone app had been discontinued yet.

Even the border officer on the American side asked about the app, he added.

“As soon as we mention we’re from Canada, the first thing they ask is ‘Oh, we haven’t been to Canada since before COVID, are you guys dropping that silly app soon?’” Montgomery said. “Thankfully, we are now. From that perspective, Americans know about it and they’re staying away from Canada in droves because they don’t want the hassle of filling out an app.”

He said from 2018 to 2020, there was a large number of American visitors to the Riverbank Discovery Centre. Since then, there have been very few.

While he thinks it will take a little bit of time, Montgomery said he believes that our neighbours to the south will start to come back. That’ll be a boost for certain sectors.

“COVID has been hard on a lot of industries, but none more than the tourism industry,” he said. “I know that a lot of economic revenue has been lost due to this and this will be a welcome change for the business community, especially hotels, restaurants, bars, sporting events, parks, fishing and hunting.

At the Brandon Chamber of Commerce, president Tanya LaBuick said it was about time.

“I think it’s going to help the airline industry,” LaBuick said. “I think it’s going to help improve travel for everybody, including folks who work at those airports and trying to filter people in a faster, more efficient way. I think overall, it’ll be nice to get back to a little bit more of our new normal.”

Locally, LaBuick believes that upcoming events in Brandon — like Manitoba Ag Ex next month and upcoming sports tournaments — will benefit from increased attendance.

Though COVID-19 hasn’t gone away, LaBuick said that people have the knowledge and training to manage the virus better.

“Fewer people are dying from the virus,” she said. “That’s really what we want to look to, whether people are having the degree of sickness they didn’t have previously. You can attribute that to vaccination or how they’ve decided to live their life in terms of distancing or not engaging in things.”

LaBuick said she believes Brandon has been a good host for foreign visitors before and will continue to do so once things open up more.

In the Municipality of Boissevain-Morton, approximately 25 kilometres north of the U.S. border crossing on Highway 10, head of council Judy Swanson said her community was “delighted.”

“We have neighbours to the south that we have relationships with both in tourism and families,” she said. “It’s been a difficult time. Our tourism in this community is really important, and so much of it is from the south.”

The end of restrictions will be a positive move for tourism, business and the community’s well-being, she said.

Swanson said both the ArriveCan app — which dissuaded people from taking day trips from the U.S. to Boissevain — and the vaccine mandates were factors in causing reduced tourism.

With the summer having just ended, Swanson said her municipality would start to advertise to attract American tourists in the new year, but she’s hopeful that business will pick up in the meantime.

“Thank heavens, with the [Canadian] dollar where it is, it’s really beneficial for [Americans] to come to Canada and we’re really close to the border,” she added.

At the International Peace Garden, which is located right at the border of Manitoba and North Dakota south of Boissevain, CEO Tim Chapman said the move would make it much easier for Canadians to visit.

“We know there are folks who maybe don’t have smartphones or just aren’t as technologically savvy who otherwise would have visited the gardens multiple times over the summer,” he said. “It’ll be nice to welcome folks back, and they’ll have the assurance that crossing over into Manitoba won’t be much of an issue.”

Chapman expressed hope that the number of visitors will increase this fall and said the garden would start advertising more to Canadians moving forward.

Requests for comment from Killarney-Turtle Mountain Mayor Merv Tweed, Melita Mayor Bill Holden, Two Borders Reeve Debbie McMechan and the Brandon Municipal Airport were not returned by press time.

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