In a country that sends more than 70 per cent of its exports to the U.S., the border matters a lot. Trucks and trains continue to move goods despite the pandemic, but Canada’s tourism and travel-related businesses lost an estimated $19.4 billion in revenue last year from the plunge in international visitors.
This is a trade barrier the Canadian government has erected that is doing more to repatriate business in the U.S., in our industry, than all the Trump rhetoric of the last four yearsA quick reopening seems unlikely. It’s not merely that Canada has a lot of virus cases, but a lot of serious ones. Ontario has about 850 people in intensive care units, and the number has more than doubled in a month. The province is under an emergency stay-at-home order.
For the battered tourism industry, that may mean a second summer of empty hotel rooms and restaurants. Now, cruises are banned until 2022, Quebec’s capital city is in lockdown, and it’s still unclear how quickly vaccination will unlock borders.