Editor:
Visitors crossing the Point Roberts Border in September 2023 totalled 86,198 and crossing pre-COVID pandemic in September 2019 was at 116,195 for a loss of 29,997 visits for that month.
Consider if each visitor spends $20. That is a loss of $600,000 to our economy in that month and annualized it is about $7,200,000.
This 20-month international border lockdown beginning March 2020 was a medically panic-induced reaction of governments and proved to be unnecessary and ineffective regarding Point Roberts. It was a severe hardship on the community both in human and economic terms some of which we have not recovered from to this day.
More harm was done to us by governments than by the Coronavirus. Further, several of us pointed out these possibilities at the time and further predicted that if this lockdown continued longer than six months, people’s habits would be altered vis a vis Point Roberts visitations. Guess what, to this day we have yet to recover.
Governments did not take care of their own here and I do not believe that they have learned anything from this grievous experience. Where is the plan, should they ever consider locking their public down again and place Point Roberts under house arrest?
Are we to expect and accept another knee jerk panic response? Do we learn nothing from this travesty? We the public should reasonably expect that our elected people and staff should protect and serve us effectively. This is certainly not the case here in Point Roberts and no relief is evidenced to date.
Brian Calder
