Canada announced it would open its border on Aug. 9 to American citizens who have been vaccinated and provide a negative COVID-19 test. It’s the first step in the slow walk back to normalcy at the northern border, which has been closed on both sides to non-essential travel since March 2020.
That’s a long time, and it will last even longer in our country. Just days after the announcement, the U.S. government extended closures to tourists at its land border with Canada and Mexico until at least Aug. 21. That drew another round of criticism from Montana’s Republican Sen. Steve Daines.
“President Biden allowing the northern border to remain closed while opening the southern border to illegal immigrants and drugs is beyond hypocritical and frustrating for Montanans,” Daines said.
Comparing the current situation at the Canadian and Mexican borders is a bit like comparing apples and oranges. However, Whitefish is sometimes referred to as “Canada’s Tijuana” due to the number of young Canadians who travel down here to enjoy cheap beer, roam the streets in packs of bachelor and bachelorette parties, and close down the local bars. Then there’s the slightly better weather.
Daines’ Democratic colleague, U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, has also been urging the Biden Administration to “find a way to reinstate nonessential crossings as quickly and safely as possible” on both sides of the border.
This is a mostly bipartisan issue. There are communities along the northern border that rely on the increased summer traffic. In Eureka, along with the extra tourism dollars they bring, Canadians own hundreds of second homes in the area they haven’t been able to access for well over a year.
However, fully reopening America could have a far different impact on other parts of Northwest Montana, specifically the Flathead Valley, and especially Canada’s Tijuana.
“We’re at max capacity in Whitefish,” Mayor John Muhlfeld told the Montana Free Press last week.
Local hotels and restaurants are packed; Glacier National Park is clocking record visitation; and even some of the more remote areas of the region are being overrun. Welcoming more tourists could push the service industry past its breaking point, an industry that is at once grappling with increased demand and a worker shortage made worse by a housing crisis.
It’s a double-edged sword. Communities in the Tobacco Valley like Eureka and Rexford will undoubtedly reap the economic benefits of a reopened border. Meanwhile, domestic visitation to the Flathead Valley has increased to almost unsustainable levels.
A common quip when going to a local grocery store or standing in line at a restaurant is, “Can you imagine how busy it would be if the border was open?”
It’s a good question to which no one really knows the answer. But it would certainly be busier, and local resources would be further strained, and a community on edge would become even edgier.
I love Canadians. I love visiting their mountain towns as much as they love visiting ours. I’m eager to see them in their matching outfits as their bachelor and bachelorette parties wander down our streets. But the question of opening the border goes beyond whether it is safe. There’s also the question of whether we have the space.