Peace Bridge duty-free shop goes into receivership as cross-border travel plummets

A judge is ordering the duty-free shop at Canada's second-busiest border crossing into receivership as it struggles to pay off millions of dollars in debt and overdue rent.

In a ruling earlier this month, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice appointed a receiver for the Peace Bridge duty-free shop who is empowered to take control of the assets, oversee liquidation and repay creditors.

According to a claim filed by Royal Bank of Canada in the Ontario Court of Appeal in January, Peace Bridge Duty Free Inc. is the tenant of the duty-free shop on the Ontario side of the Peace Bridge at the border between Fort Erie, Ontario and Buffalo, New York. The landlord is the Buffalo and Fort Erie Public Bridge Authority. Peace Bridge has operated the retail duty-free store for more than three decades. In normal times, the store was open 24 hours a day, every day, and employed about 90 staff.

The current lease, dated July 28, 2016, ends in October 2031. It requires Peace Bridge to pay rent, which is comprised of base rent and percentage rent, and to pay any applicable sales taxes, property taxes, operating costs, and utilities. The minimum annual base rent is $4 million or $333,333 per month, the court document shows.

The Buffalo and Fort Erie Public Bridge Authority claims the store owes it up to $17 million in unpaid rent going back years, while Royal Bank of Canada says $3.3 million in debt is outstanding.

The Niagara Region retailer says it owes less, but the total still sits in the millions.

CBC News has reached out to the store for comment.

Continuing to operate for now, the store's financial troubles come as duty-free shops across the country suffer from plunging sales amid a sharp downturn in cross-border visits by Canadians as well as Americans.

The number of cross-border travellers going from Canada to the U.S. dropped by nearly 900,000 in March compared to the same month last year, according to the latest U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data — easily one of the worst year-over-year drops recorded outside of the COVID-19 health crisis.

The border figures show 4,105,516 travellers crossed the U.S. northern border in March of this year, down from 4,970,360 people who did the same in 2024 — a roughly 17 per cent decline that observers say is largely driven by President Donald Trump's trade war, 51st state taunts and Canada-bashing.