Point Roberts: 'Economic recovery beyond reach, no relief in sight'

Chamber of Commerce head says ArriveCan, other border hassles keeping trades people, supplies from entering the American enclave

Publishing date:

Mar 20, 2022 • 3 days ago • 4 minute read • 22 Comments

A man working in the yard outside a house in Point Roberts, Wash., is seen from Delta. Point Roberts sits on a peninsula and is only accessible by land by travelling through Canada. Photo: Darryl Dyck/CP Photo by DARRYL DYCK /THE CANADIAN PRESS

When Brian Calder looks out over the tiny spit of land that is Point Roberts, he sees a dire situation.

The American pene-exclave, despite border-crossing measures being relaxed somewhat over COVID-19 health measures imposed by both countries, is still being hammered by the reduction in Canadian shoppers, holidaymakers and cottage-goers.

“Economic recovery,” said Calder, the president of the Point Roberts Chamber of Commerce and a general contractor, “is beyond our reach and no relief is in sight.

“It’s devastating.”

Economic activity in Point Roberts has probably fallen by 90 per cent, Calder said.

“A contractor would normally bring in people with him from what we call ‘The Other Side (Blaine, Bellingham),’” Carter said, but the special status they enjoyed during the first 18 months of COVID — travel for what was deemed essential work was exempt from normal COVID protocols — is gone.

“They could drive that 24 miles from border (Peace Arch) to border (Point Roberts) as long as they didn’t stop in Canada. But with ArriveCan, these guys are like, ‘Wait a minute, we’re vaxxed, we’re passported, half of us are on Nexus.’”

They can’t be bothered, in other words.

“They just got to the level where they said, ‘That’s enough, no more, we’re not coming.’”

B.C. license plates are slowly becoming a site again at gas bars and stores in Point Roberts, but there’s still no worry about having to line up at the pumps. Photo: Courtesy of Linda Hughes PNG

Pump it up

Contractors tell Calder that US$5 million in work is in limbo because of a lack of materials, such as cement, and tradespeople; the 900-slip Point Roberts marina sits almost empty and is for sale; the golf course is shut and for sale, too.

Pre-COVID, the town could expect up to 160,000 visitors a month. On an annual basis, 1.439 million people crossed the Point Roberts border in 2019, 273,112 did so in 2020 when border restrictions went into place on March 18, and 43,572 crossed the border up to the end of June 2021.

Only now, with relaxed restrictions and more to come on April 1, are British Columbians trickling back to find gasoline cheaper than $2 a litre.

“You can’t build an economy around self-service gas stations,” said John Lesow, a dual Canadian-American citizen who lived in Point Roberts for 23 years before relocating to North Vancouver five years ago. He continues to make two or three trips a week there to check on his property and retrieve his mail.

“Point Roberts has had a tough time of it, we’ve lost population and we’ve lost businesses,” Lesow said. “A lot of people think, ‘Well, now that the borders are going to open again there will be a Point Roberts spring, things are going to bloom, everything’s going to be nice.

“I think they’re wrong. I don’t mean to sound pessimistic, but it’s not going to happen.”

Ali Hayton outside her Point Roberts store Marketplace International in the summer of 2021. The biggest employer in town, Hayton was forced to lay off half of her staff of 20 because COVID restrictions at the border reduced traffic so much. Photo: Courtesy of Dean Priestman PNG

Hope springs

Ali Hayton has had to let 10 of her normal staff of 20 go at International Marketplace, where locals used to have a hard time finding a place to park between B.C. plates in its huge lot.

“I’m a little more optimistic,” Hayton said. “I think things are turning around.

“Gas prices are bringing people down, getting the word out (about relaxed border rules) has been helping and I think April 1 will help again.”

Pre-entry test requirements for fully vaccinated travellers will no longer need to be provided come April 1.

But she is still in a bind because she is having trouble finding vaccinated tradespeople willing to come to Point Roberts to install the new freezer system her store needs.

“The vaccine requirement is eliminating a lot of our contractors,” she said.

Part and parcel

Point Roberts might have the highest number of parcel pickup and delivery businesses per capita of anywhere in North America, it’s just so much cheaper for so many people in Metro Vancouver to use one of them as their business address.

“Business has started to pick up,” said Beth Calder, part-owner of Point to Point Parcel which counts on Canadians for 95 per cent of its operations. “This month we’ve seen the numbers grow, our business has doubled from the first week of March until now.”

When COVID restrictions slammed the border shut in March 2020, she laid off eight of her 11 staff.

“It’s looking promising right now and fingers crossed that continues, but will probably still take us a couple of years to recover from everything.”

The 2020 U.S. census put the population of Point Roberts at around 1,200, but Calder figures probably a third of those have left to get work elsewhere. Pre-COVID, with a seasonal influx of Canadians, the town’s population could swell to almost 5,000 between spring break and Labour Day.

The irony for Point Roberts residents who have stuck it out is the Whatcom Fire District 5 chief, Chris Carleton, was early and proactive in advocating vaccinations and 85 per cent of Point Roberts has been jabbed at least twice, the Chamber of Commerce’s Calder said.

“It’s one thing on top of another. We’re so small, no one pays attention to us — neither side,” Calder said.

“Canada, I can see because we’re not part of Canada, but I didn’t expect the U.S. abandoning us like they have. And they have, totally abandoned us.”

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