When the Canada-U.S. border finally opens and tourists return to Hyder, Alaska, they will find most of the businesses there closed.
The community of about 60 people is accessible by road only through Canada, so the extension of border restrictions is not just an inconvenience — it’s a devastating blow to the town during what is typically its most profitable season.
“At this point, I think we’re all almost feeling well, f--- it, this season’s a wash too,” said Caroline Stewart, the owner of Boundary Gallery & Gifts in Hyder.
Stewart’s gift shop, which draws tourists with her dichroic glass jewelry and locally made fudge, shut down when the border shut down in March 2020, and hasn’t been open since. The same has been true for Hyder’s other businesses — two hotels, two restaurants and a couple of other gift shops.
There are three other “exclaves” like Hyder along the border — two small, sparsely populated towns in the U.S., and one in Canada — which largely rely on an open border to carry out their businesses, go to school and even buy groceries.
But when the border shuttered at the start of the pandemic, residents of the exclaves were left to figure out how to stay afloat with their main source of business — tourism — cut off.
With vaccination rates on the rise in both the U.S. and Canada, locals were hopeful border restrictions would lift June 21 — offering the possibility of a semi-normal summer season. But on June 18 the Canadian government announced that restrictions would stay in place until at least July 21, a move that fueled frustrations in both countries.
While signs are pointing to an ease of border restrictions later this month, businesses in Hyder are looking at another “lost summer,” as the reopening would be too late in the season for it to be profitable, said Hyder Community Association President Paul Larkin.
Larkin added that the extended closure may eventually force some businesses to change hands or close for good.
“Even if the border does open, it's not going to salvage this summer … This is almost two summers in a row that they've been denied being able to have business as usual,” he said.
Because Hyder has no grocery stores in town, residents are permitted to travel across the border to Stewart, British Columbia, for essentials only. But with tourists and their Canadian neighbors barred from crossing into Hyder, the unincorporated community’s own businesses, including Stewart’s gift shop, have missed out on what’s now looking like two summer seasons.
“Who would be traveling? We won’t have any young people. We might have some seniors who weren’t as affected by this,” Stewart said. “But I think most of us are just saying, ‘Well, there’s always next year.’”
More than a thousand miles away in Northwest Angle, Minn., another exclave along the border, resort owner Paul Colson’s business is also struggling to stay afloat amid the extended restrictions.
Northwest Angle, which is surrounded by Canada on three sides with a body of water to the south, is only linked to the U.S. through a road that runs through Manitoba. Similar to Hyder, residents of the Angle are able to drive across the border for necessities, but the restrictions have largely prevented tourists from visiting — essentially tanking the area’s businesses.
Colson’s fishing resort has remained open despite the border closure, but he said business was down 87 percent last summer, which is typically his busiest season. When the border didn’t open June 21 as expected, frustrations in the community escalated.
“I'm watching my business just fall apart. We're a fourth generation,” Colson said. “It's ... mentally, it's very difficult.”
Since the two governments renew border restrictions on a month-to-month basis rather than having a set end date for the closure, Colson said it’s been nearly impossible to craft a business model or predict the future.
“If you would’ve told me that the border would have been closed for a year, I could’ve done things totally differently … But we’re doing this in 30-day chunks,” he said.
In Point Roberts, Wash., an exclave that sits on a peninsula just south of Vancouver but juts into U.S. territory, businesses are down 90 percent, said Brian Calder, the president of Point Roberts Chamber of Commerce.
“When they lock us down, they lock us in. We’re a ghost town. We are completely dependent on Canada for economic health and tourism, and it has stopped for 15 months, which is devastating to us,” Calder said.
On what will happen on July 21, when the two governments will either renew or end the border restrictions, the exclaves’ residents have stopped making predictions after being “blindsided” by the June 21 extension.
“The only person who knows is [Prime Minister Justin] Trudeau,” said Stewart, the Hyder gift shop owner.
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