B.C. drivers head south for U.S. gas deals after COVID pre-entry test dropped

Posted April 4, 2022 7:11 am.
Last Updated April 4, 2022 7:14 am.
Canada’s move to drop pre-entry COVID-19 tests for fully vaccinated travellers made for some emotional reunions — but it also opened the door for gas deals and cross-border shopping traffic over the weekend.
With gas prices hitting as high as $2 for a litre of regular in the past month across Metro Vancouver, there’s no doubt a number of Canadians took advantage of the easing of travel measures to head across the line for a fill up.
In Blaine, Washington — which is just across the land border from Surrey — some stations definitely noticed an uptick in customers with foreign plates.
“Midnight or something — you can go by the tills or you can check by the hour what you pumped or whatever. We compared that to like six months ago, a year ago, and it was three times what we were doing,” said Mike Hill, who owns a Chevron in the community, of the day Canadian COVID-19 rules changed.
“I think the price differential now is larger than it’s ever been,” Hill added, noting the harsh winter that triggered flooding and other supply chain challenges B.C. faced as partial factors pushing prices up in the province.
In Blaine, gas hovered around the $1.51 CDN a litre mark — a vast difference from what many on the Lower Mainland have seen at the pumps in recent weeks.
However, though it was a busy weekend for stations in some U.S. border towns, Hill admits there’s still a ways to go when it comes to business recovery.
Profits for some in Blaine still way off pre-pandemic levels
Hill notes that while his station saw about triple the number of customers over the weekend than it did several months ago, he’s still nowhere near pre-pandemic levels.
“It’s got to triple about four more times to get back to normal. It’s slow,” he said.
As of April 1, fully vaccinated travellers are no longer required to show proof of a pre-entry COVID-19 test to get into Canada. Travellers may still be selected for random testing upon arrival and are still required to use the ArriveCAN app. Travel testing measures remain unchanged for partially and non-vaccinated travellers.
The federal government has seen growing pressure from tourism and business groups on both sides of the border to ease its testing measures, with industries saying businesses were suffering amid lower visitor numbers.
Hill says he’s lived in Blaine his whole life. He admits the pandemic revealed to the entire community just how much it is reliant on cross-border traffic and visitors from Canada.
“It’s never been closed like that, ever,” Hill said of the land border between Canada and the U.S. “This deal was two years and you’d never even think you’d survive that long.”
He estimates Canadians made up about 95 per cent of his business pre-pandemic.
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Blaine’s deputy mayor says the first weekend since travel testing measures lifted made for a chaotic and busy few days for locals — which was welcome after two years.
However, just how much visitors were able to put back into the local economy remains unknown for the time being.
“It would take a long time to examine whether or not we’re already seeing an impact financially, because as a border town where we had previously, up to until two years ago, relied on a lot of traffic, not just of Canadians going south, but of Americans who were on the way to Canada, just stopping by our little town and perhaps having a meal or getting some gas or other amenities on the way north,” explained Richard May.
-With files from Greg Bowman