A group of Minnesota legislators are looking for a safe reopening of the Canada/US border.
They’ve written to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and US President Joe Biden to start working together on ending the travel restrictions.
They’ve been in place since the start of the pandemic. They have recently been extended on a month-by-month basis, with the latest extension going to April 21.
Senator Tom Bakk, who represents Koochiching County, says an open border is fundamental to the economies on both sides.
“People are losing their ability to be able to shop back and forth. That’s a serious problem for the business infrastructure on both sides of the border. There’s no one travelling through Fort Frances going north fishing either,” says Bakk.
He says he feels for Canadian lodge owners. He says American anglers who would have been travelling to northwestern Ontario were instead visiting northern Minnesota lakes last summer.
“It was good for some of the resorts in northern Minnesota, but it wasn’t the experience that a lot of those fishermen and women wanted to have,” says Bakk.
“What worries me a little bit for those Canadian Outfitters, and I know I know some of them. I’ve lived in northern Minnesota, and I moose hunted and fished in Canada for as long as I can remember. Once people start to get into a habit of not coming, then that becomes the new normal.”
Bakk says they are not advocating that all border restrictions be removed. He says those who have been vaccinated should be exempt.
“With the number of people getting vaccinated in the US, at least there should be a way for people that have been vaccinated to get across the border and kind of resume some normal life and vice versa,” says Bakk.
