happen5:26Tax-free shop owner says Canadians avoid the U.S. and business is suffering
If the business will soon take over in his duty store, éRic Lapointe said he would have to lay off employees.
The store owner said: “So far, I have three customers today happen NilK▲KSal was hosted on Friday afternoon. “That’s a small part of what we usually have at this time of the year.”
Lapointe said business fell 60% during the same period last year at Beauce Beauce near the Quebec-Maine border.
He is not alone. Duty-free shops across the country (still recovering from pandemic travel restrictions) have reported massive business declines in recent months as Canadians increasingly avoid traveling to the United States
The duty-free shop is licensed by the Canadian Border Services Agency at Land 52 and International Airport in Canada to sell products including duty-free wines, including cross-border travelers, and cannot be legally transferred to delivery or online sales.
“If we had no one travelled in the United States, we would have no customers,” Lapointe said.
Less travel to the south
Sales at duty-free stores have been between 40% and 50% nationwide since late January, with some of the far-off border crossings reported a 80% decline, according to Frontier Nutian Authorssocy.
“It just fell off the cliff,” said Barbara Barrett, executive director of the association. “It’s grim.”
Number of return trips among Canadians traveling to the United States in March Slump compared to the previous yearaccording to Statistics Canada. Air travel fell 13.5%, while land travel fell 32%.
When U.S. President Donald Trump launched a trade war with Canada and other countries and posed repeated threats to Canada’s sovereignty, the decline was key to the domestic tourism industry.
Several Canadians also told CBC that they had cancelled their trip because They were afraid that our Border Guard review would be more scrutinizedsomething Canadian government has warned travelers.
Jasmine Mooney, Canada, is recently Lock in US detention centers for 11 days Her difficulty applying for a U.S. visa has been too difficult and has since described the conditions to keep painful. Two German tourists and Backpackers in Wales He has also been detained in recent months.
More importantly, the two-way development of cross-border land travel. Car visits for U.S. residents fell 11% last month, while it fell in the second month a year ago.
“It’s like Americans coming to Canada shyly,” said Philippe Bachand, who pointed out the booing American sports teams received in Canada at a duty-free shop south of Montreal. “This is not welcome.”
Seek help
As duty-free shops are caught by the crosshairs of trade wars and geopolitical tensions, the No Tax Association calls on the federal government to provide support in the form of grants or loans to eliminate the interference.
Many of these stores are still recovering from pandemic losses, the association said.
“I just woke up from a hangover and I was having a tariff nightmare,” John Slipp said while driving to the duty-free exit of NB Woodstock, who was founded in 1985.
The unobligated store owner, the second-generation Osoyoos of British Columbia, said he is working to keep his business in the midst of Trump’s trade war with Canada. Cameron Bissonnette said he had no idea how long he would be able to pay his employees as cross-border traffic was closed.
Cameron Bissonnette is worried that he will be forced to close an unobligated store in Osoyoos, British Columbia, which has been in his family since the 1980s and he intends to transfer it to his children.
In a recent interview with CBC News He shed tears while discussing the future of the family business, which he said has dropped from 15 employees to just three.
“It’s time to the point where you have to have a real moment,” he said.
Osoyoos Mayor Sue McKortoff told CBC that if the store is closed, it will also affect the community.
“Tax exemption is one of the best businesses in the town,” she said. “They have always been very supportive of the town. They hire people from the town.”
Meanwhile, Lapointe said he had no choice but to let the workers go if the sale didn’t sell up during the usual long Easter weekend.
He said he didn’t want to lose his business, which was deep inside him.
“I started working here since 1990 and then became an assistant manager and then a manager for 20 years, and I bought this store three years ago,” he said.
“So to me, that store is my home.”
Eric Lapointe produced by Leïla Ahouman was interviewed through Canadian media and documents from CBC BC.