Cross-border trips to the U.S. reach COVID lows with nearly 500,000 fewer travellers in February

Nearly 500,000 fewer travellers crossed the land border from Canada into the U.S. in February compared to the same month last year, according to data from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the latest sign that President Donald Trump's taunts and tariffs have shaken bilateral relations.

The number of travellers entering the U.S. in a passenger vehicle — the most common way to make the trip — dropped from 2,696,512 in February 2024 to 2,223,408 last month, reaching levels not seen since cross-border travel normalized in the post-COVID-19 era.

In fact, the number of travellers driving over the U.S. land border is the lowest it's been since April 2022, according to CBP data. The Canadian government didn't lift all travel-related restrictions, like testing and quarantine measures, until October of that year. The fact that the current flow of travellers is at the same level as when travel was much more arduous is revealing, experts say.

The data shows there was a sudden reversal in February, just as Trump was launching his trade war and ramping up his annexationist rhetoric about Canada becoming the 51st state.

The number of cross-border travellers headed for the U.S. in October, November, December and January were all well above the numbers reported for the same month the year prior — but in February there was a clear break in the upward trend.

Len Saunders is an immigration lawyer in Blaine, Wash., a town of about 6,000 people right on the border with B.C.

He said the decline in Canadian day trippers is evident at every turn in a town that caters to cross-border travellers.

"This is like COVID all over again," he said in an interview with CBC News. "With the rhetoric coming from Trump — people just don't want to come down here.

"If you're not buying American liquor in B.C., you're definitely not coming here to save 20 bucks on gas. There's just a huge reduction in Canadians — you can see it in the Costco parking lot, at Trader Joe's. Canadians are voting with their wallets right now. That's what's happening," he said.

Saunders said the 51st state taunts, the tariff threats and the reports of Canadians being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are all driving people away.

"We're only two months into a four-year administration. If they keep this up there will be no Canadians coming down here — there will be a 100 per cent boycott of this country," he said.

Barbara Barrett is the executive director of the Frontier Duty Free Association, a group that represents 32 independently owned duty-free shops that dot the Canadian side of the land border from coast to coast.

She said the travel decline is "catastrophic" and the mostly family-run stores she represents are seeing sales drop off dramatically.

She said sales never really recovered after the pandemic and now, with the recent disruptions, are down about 80 per cent compared to pre-2020 figures.