Small Washington town wants test exemption for Canadian visitors

‘We’re a completely unique place in North America,’ says business leader in U.S. community

VANCOUVER — COVID-19 testing requirements for Canadians driving home from the United States could only prolong the hardships for the tiny coastal town of Point Roberts, Wash., community leaders say.

Point Roberts is disconnected from the rest of the state by water, requiring residents to drive through Metro Vancouver to get to Washington state’s mainland.

Brian Calder, president of the Point Roberts Chamber of Commerce, said that before COVID-19, the community would see about 1.5 million visitors each year, but half of them often spent an hour or less in the town getting cheaper gas, buying groceries or checking on their cabins or boats.

When the U.S. border reopens to vaccinated Canadians, there will be no testing requirement to go south, but Canada requires a negative COVID-19 test to return and Calder said that’s a problem for Point Roberts businesses.

Point Roberts only offers testing on Wednesdays and Sundays, which he said would limit Canadian visitors.

He said he’s hoping the Canadian government lifts the testing regulation for the town.

“We’re a completely unique place in North America and we deserve to be treated uniquely,” he said, citing a 87 per cent vaccination

rate in the community. “We’ve been very proactive as a community. The last thing we want is to be conduits of COVID, but we’re not being listened to.”

Land and sea borders between the U.S. and Canada have been closed to non-essential travel since March 21, 2020.

Calder said the closure has

been “economically devastating” for the town, where 90 per cent of the economy was eliminated because of pandemic travel restrictions.

“It’s dependent on Canada, not neighbouring communities in the United States, so when you close that border, we’re toast.”