Border can’t stay closed forever, but reopening any time soon would be terrible mistake By: Tom Brodbeck Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Friday, Jun. 5, 2020

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 05/06/2020 (1923 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

During normal times, more than 14 million tourists from the United States travel to Canada each year. The number of Canadians that make trips south of the border, including same-day and weekend shopping excursions, is about three times that.

It’s something to think about as Canada and the U.S. decide whether to lift travel restrictions between the two countries, which were extended last month to help contain the spread of the novel coronavirus. Officials on both sides of the border agreed to maintain the ban on all non-essential travel until June 21. They will have to decide soon whether to extend it further.

Considering the high number of cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. — including in many states that border Canada — lifting the ban at this point would be a catastrophic error. The daily count of new cases in Canada continues to fall. With the exception of Montreal and Toronto, the pandemic is largely under control in Canada. The number of new cases per day is below 800, down from 1,050 a week ago. The test positivity rate — the percentage of those tested who are infected — continues to decline across the country.

That could change in a heartbeat if Canada agrees to open its borders to its southern neighbours. When it comes to containing the spread of the novel coronavirus, the two countries are worlds apart.

While New York City saw no deaths from the disease on Wednesday for the first time in months, New York state still reported an average of 676 new cases a day over the past week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the U.S.

Michigan had an average of 376 new cases a day over the past seven days. Minnesota, which borders Manitoba and Ontario, had 544 (close to twice as many cases a day as Manitoba’s total since the beginning of the pandemic).

North Dakota, a favourite destination for many Manitobans, hasn’t been as hard hit. But it still reported 267 new cases over the past week. Manitoba, with a larger population, had six new cases during the same period.

Washington State is still getting well over 300 cases a day. California’s daily count is nearly 10 times that amount.

The number of new cases isn’t the only way to assess the current state of the pandemic. The more a region tests, the more cases it’s going to find. But the test positivity rate is also higher in the U.S. than in Canada. It has been falling overall south of the border, but in some parts of the country — including the northwestern region — the test positivity rate has climbed slightly over the past week, according to the CDC.

For a province such as Manitoba (with a test positivity rate of close to zero over the past few weeks, no COVID-19 patients in hospital and no new deaths for over a month), opening the border to a country with substantially higher infection rates would be suicidal.

The few new cases Manitoba has had in recent weeks are almost all linked to travel. The better it can limit the number of people coming into the province, especially from the U.S., the faster the economy can recover.

The few new cases Manitoba has had in recent weeks are almost all linked to travel. The better it can limit the number of people coming into the province, especially from the U.S., the faster the economy can recover.

We can’t stop all international travel. Canada still trades with the U.S. and other countries. It must continue to do so. Trucking and other modes of transporting goods, as well as the movement of labour (temporary foreign workers, for example) will cross international borders. But non-essential travellers don’t have to, at least not for now.

If the border were to reopen this summer, it would take just a small portion of those not following self-isolation rules to trigger an outbreak (as a doctor in New Brunswick recently did). It could change Manitoba’s situation virtually overnight. All the sacrifices made, including job losses and business closures, would be for naught.

The Canada-U.S. border can’t stay closed forever. Eventually non-essential travel must resume. But specified benchmarks should be achieved before doing so, including meeting targets for new reported cases and test positivity rates. That’s something both countries should agree on. The U.S. doesn’t want people travelling from Montreal or Toronto to New York any more than Manitobans want folks coming in from Minnesota right now. Keeping the borders closed to non-essential travel is mutually beneficial. That shouldn’t change until the spread of this virus is brought under control.

tom.brodbeck@freepress.mb.ca

Tom Brodbeck
Columnist

Tom Brodbeck is an award-winning author and columnist with over 30 years experience in print media. He joined the Free Press in 2019. Born and raised in Montreal, Tom graduated from the University of Manitoba in 1993 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and commerce. Read more about Tom.

Tom provides commentary and analysis on political and related issues at the municipal, provincial and federal level. His columns are built on research and coverage of local events. The Free Press’s editing team reviews Tom’s columns before they are posted online or published in print – part of the Free Press’s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.