After over 18 months of having the Canada-U.S. Border closed, the City of Estevan is excited to welcome Americans back into their community.
The federal government announced that as of August 9th, fully-vaccinated Americans will be able to travel to Canada for pleasure.
Executive Director of the Estevan Chamber of Commerce Jackie Wall says the timing of the reopening couldn’t be better.
“The timing is working out quite well for the return to school,” said Wall. “We have several extracurricular activities where our neighbours just across the border have been coming into Estevan to participate in, so that’ll be nice for them to get back to be able to see their friends, and to participate, hopefully, in extracurriculars.”
Wall says with Estevan being the only major hub in the area, many residents consider Americans close to the border their neighbours.
She adds when the border closed, it felt like half the community disappeared.
“When you’re a border community, that border is there, but those are your nieghbours,” said Wall. “They are the people that you turn to, especially in some previous years when we’ve had disaster situations in our region, and those are our close neighbours.”
She says people on both sides had to change their routines drastically when cross-border travel wasn’t allowed.
“We are so close to the border, and there is so much back and forth, previous to Covid for equipment, for fuel, for everything, so it’ll be nice to see that return,” said Wall. “I know there’s a lot of people on this side of the border also waiting to head across to see their friends, to visit some of the businesses that are just across the line, and to resume our usual lives.”
While Americans will be able to come into Canada starting on the 9th, Canadians will have to wait until August 21 to enter the States.
