Tightened Security Puts Squeeze On Border Community Businesses
By Dana Razzano
WASHINGTON – For the past seven years Maureen McBride’s daily commute from Woodstock, New Brunswick, to Houlton Regional Hospital in Maine has been the same: a 25-minute drive, a hot cup of coffee, background noise provided by the car radio and a bagel or apple for breakfast. Other than an extra 15 minutes added to her commute, little has changed since Sept. 11.
McBride, the nurse manager of the emergency room at Houlton Regional Hospital, said inspections of cars at the border are more thorough, but only cause minor delays during her 8 a.m. crossing time. Before Sept. 11 there was hardly a wait, but now guards are strict about documentation. As a Canadian McBride must carry a TN (Trade NAFTA) visa that “we have to have on us at all times.”
Life, in general, for border community residents remains very similar to its pre-Sept. 11 ways, but smaller ripple effects of the terrorist attacks have caused a different atmosphere in the border communities and some unwanted results for residents and businesses alike.
“We are in a state of war,” said Dan Kane, an Immigration and Naturalization Services spokesman in Washington. “This is an extraordinary situation which demands an extraordinary response.”
Prior to Sept. 11, Kane said, it was important to facilitate border entry in an expeditious way, so inspectors spent 30 seconds to one minute with each car. Now inspectors are more “scrutinizing,” searching trunk and cargo areas and vehicle’s undercarriage with mirrors.
Business owners from Calais and Houlton said what is most detrimental to their livelihood is the combination of strict searches of cars at border crossings and the drop in value of the Canadian dollar down to 61 cents.
Aside from some traffic delays, another downside of strict searches is that people who once may have hid purchases are now being forced to declare all the items they buy, said Calais gift shop owner Melissa Royer.
Canadians visiting the United States for less than 24 hours are “technically not allowed to bring anything back” without declaring their purchases, said Sharon Gill, spokeswoman for the Canada Customs and Revenue Service. After a visit of more than 24 hours, Canadians are allowed purchases up to $30 U.S. without paying tariffs.
Paula Gendron, executive director of the Houlton Chamber of Commerce, said the current situation places “more of a financial burden” on Canadians, keeping them away.
Houlton bookstore owner Gerry Berthelette said the tariffs are “a big restriction on sales” and affected local businesses long before Sept. 11.
On the upside of business in Calais is Kendalls Fine Jewelers. Owner Jayne Johnston said the store has “been doing very well” despite the loss of many international customers because of the poor exchange rate.
“I think [Sept. 11] made a lot of people take a step back to appreciate what they have,” Johnston said. “We are seeing customers we haven’t seen in years and customers we’ve never had before.”
For the Treworgy Pharmacy, the necessity of prescription medication helped keep business strong. “Fortunately from our standpoint, most of our business comes from U.S. customers,” said David Peters, chief pharmacist and owner of the Calais store.
The biggest drop-off came from business in the front section of the store, where many Canadian customers would purchase cards, he said. “Anything that makes coming across the border a hassle” will slow business, Peters said. If Canadians can avoid sitting in lines by taking their business elsewhere, they will, he said.
Kane said, “Crossings may take longer, but we ask to be people to be patient.”
For other businesses though, local customers are not enough to keep them sustained.
Since Sept. 11, My Favorite Things gift shop in Calais has struggled to regain lost business. Owner Melissa Royer said that before Sept. 11 the shop was doing better than it had last year and that she had “anticipated a profit by the end of the year.”
Now, “I’ll be lucky if I break even,” Royer said.
Though only 50 percent of Royer’s business comes from Canadians, her losses were considerably larger. In September, business dropped 80 percent from the same month in 2000, in October it was down 50 percent and in November it dropped 30 percent, she said.
It seems that “everybody is hurting,” Royer said. She added that her bank said since she was paying her bills, she was “doing better than most.” Business is slowly picking back up, and so far in December the shop is in the same place as it was last year, Royer said.
In Houlton, however, losses seem considerably less drastic.
“Our numbers are definitely down,” said Berthelette, owner of Volumes Bookstore, “but things are picking up with the holidays approaching.”
“Everybody has felt it,” he said of Sept. 11. Because his used bookstore reaches a niche audience, Berthelette said, he believes he “should be less affected than others because if people want used books, there’s not many other places to go.”
But Gendron, of the Houlton Chamber of Commerce, said “every business has its ups and downs” and that the chamber hasn’t received any reports that businesses are “suffering.”
Surprisingly, Gendron said, Sept. 11 has actually had a positive affect on her community.
“The most notable [difference] is that the population is going to increase because of it,” she said. Additional Border Patrol agents and Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) inspectors will bring people into the area, along with the desire of Americans “to get a little bit removed from urban centers” for personal and professional reasons.
Dan Ross and his wife, Anne, relocated to Houlton from Atlanta after Sept. 11 to open the health club Main Street Fitness. Ross said they moved to Houlton because they “wanted to move to an area with a holistic lifestyle” and low levels of crime.
Ross said though he had researched the area in August, “Sept. 11 prompted us more” to move. “I think the town has a lot of potential,” he said Ross of his business prospects.
Trade between Maine and Canada is a $3.4 billion industry per year. From January of this year until September there was a 12.5 percent increase in Canadian exports to Maine over a year earlier, said Ronald Irwin, the Canadian consul general to New England.
Irwin said that Canada is the No. 1 trading partner with 38 states, is a “major trading partner” with New England and conducts $1.3 billion in trade per day with the United States.
“Tourism and trade is going to be down,” Irwin said of the effects of Sept. 11. “It’s impossible [for Canada] not to be impacted.”
For Gendron and others, it’s the little things in life have changed since Sept. 11. Her husband, Marc, and their 10-year old daughter were denied access to Canada one afternoon because he didn’t have identification for their daughter. It was a situation the family had never before encountered.
Another new situation for the family: Gendron’s son, who plays on the Southern Aroostook Minor Hockey Association’s 14-15 year old team, now must carry a signed parental permission form authorizing his travel for practice and games in Canadian arenas.
Guards that once would let regular visitors and commuting workers pass through by simple recognition now stop everyone and check documents, Gendron said.
But, said McBride, “they’re doing it because they have to.”
Border crossings may be even quicker in January, when an estimated 96 Maine National Guard troops would be deployed to state border crossings to assist Customs Service officials, INS inspectors and Border Patrol agents, said Maj. Eldon Hardwick of the Army National Guard.
The announcement of the deployment came with an agreement signed by Attorney General John Ashcroft and Canadian Cabinet members signifying their commitment to fight terrorism and focus on border security.
“This is an important and preventive measure of relief [for those] who have been working without assistance with virtually no time off,” said Dave Lackey, spokesman for U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe.
U.S. Rep. Tom Allen agrees. “It’s at least a good temporary solution to the problem [Border Patrol and INS inspectors] are facing up there,” he said. “There is so much work and relatively so few people to do it.”
In a written statement, Ashcroft said the guardsmen will only “supplement existing staff temporarily” who have been operating at Threat Level One, the highest state of alert, since Sept. 11 and have been subjected to mandatory overtime and had all scheduled leave canceled.
“We haven’t treated our northern border very well,” said Chris Sands, director of the Canada Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Despite a 25 percent increase in crossings between1996 and 2000, the Border Patrol was working with the same number of guards it had in 1993, he said.
The agreement also includes an increase in integrated border enforcement teams of U.S. and Canadian officers; the sharing of law enforcement information, including fingerprinting; developing joint visa requirements; accessing passenger information at key international airports in both countries; and developing common biometric identification cards.
Canada was criticized after Sept. 11 for its lack of strict border controls, but those complaints turned out to be “not accurate,” Irwin said. Nevertheless, Canadian officials have agreed to step up their security measures. The Canadian government recently announced a proposal to spend $5 billion over the next five years for increased border security and updated border facilities.
“I think that it is good that the Canadians are increasing their security standards,” U.S. Rep. John Baldacci said. It is important that the countries have “harmony” in their policies concerning the border, he said.
Border security by itself is “useless” unless there are other systems in place, Sands said. The border is only a checkpoint because we can’t guarantee to catch the people trying to get around the system without other help, he said.
Senator Collins said she welcomed Ashcroft’s decision in the short term but preferred to see a long-term solution. “We need to figure out a system that provides increased security but that does not needlessly impede commerce and tourists and families from crossing the border,” she said.
Baldacci said appropriations to carry out the PATRIOT Act include tripling the authorization for Border Patrol personnel, INS inspectors and customs officials. Though the release of funds and training of new personnel will take several months, this will have long-term results, he said.
What happened on Sept. 11 “has been devastating to us,” Irwin said, both personally and professionally.
Canadians have a very close relationship with New Englanders, Irwin said. “Twenty-five percent of New Englanders are Canadian descendants.”
“There is almost a seamless border between New England and Atlantic Canada,” he said.
