New research at Western Washington University found the cross-border flow of good, trucks and people were impacted in ways never before experienced during the pandemic.
The Border Policy Research Institute at WWU released the 2021 Border Barometer today (Wednesday), the first and only in-depth comprehensive analysis of the impacts of the Canada – US CoVID-19 border restrictions.
Non-essential border restrictions have had a devastating economic and social impact on cross-border communities, with the tourism, shopping, recreation, sports and entertainment industries suffering steep losses in employment, wages and sales tax revenues.
It also found that deep social connections have been servered, with stories demonstrating the toll restrictions have on family and friends.
The report concludes the depth and breadth of sub-national cross-border networks is vast, playing a pivotal role in the lives of stakeholders in cross-border regions and suggests that crafting better border policy will require good data and ideas from communities directly experiencing the impacts of the border restrictions.