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All Things Considered
Tom Crann, Megan Burks and Alex Cheng

As the Canadian border reopens, examining the impact of its closure on Minnesotans

Border crossing
The U.S.-Canada border crossing in International Falls, Minn.
MPR News | Tom Weber 2009

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Cars lined up for miles in International Falls, Minn., Monday, some waiting for up to seven hours to cross into Canada on the first day of the border reopening for U.S. passport holders.

Clearly, the border’s pandemic closure, which began in March 2020, had an impact on Minnesotans. But what exactly was the nature of that impact?

Monica Haynes is the director of the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at the University of Minnesota Duluth, which co-published a research report on the border closure earlier this year. She told host Tom Crann the closure’s impact was more human than economic in Minnesota.

Because Minnesota’s border crossing serves less essential travel and more tourism than crossings in other places like Michigan and New York, Minnesota’s crossing volume was down a whopping 96 percent each month during the closure compared to 2019 levels, Haynes said.

Minnesotans and nearby Canadians with friends and family across the border might not have been able to see them for a year or more.

At the same time, although the tourism and resort sector was hit hard during the pandemic, the border closing shifted some business from international resorts to local resorts in Minnesota, Haynes said.

“A lot of resorts didn’t actually see a huge negative impact, just because of that shift in traveler preferences,” Haynes said.

What will happen if the border has to close again in response to the delta variant? According to Haynes, it might be a similar story: a greater impact on passenger vehicles than on industry and business, which have figured out how to operate in a lockdown environment.

By the end of 2020, shipment volume during the border closure had already returned to normal, pre-COVID levels, Haynes said.

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.