COVID restrictions easing, but border town of Sault Ste. Marie not yet back to normal

For the first time in 20 months, Canadians can pop over the border for dinner, shopping or to visit friends and family. 

The lifting of some restrictions on non-essential travel is very welcome in Sault Ste. Marie, a community split by the St. Mary's River and the international border between Ontario and Michigan. 

But with Canadians needing to pass a molecular COVID test 72 hours before they come home, many are expecting the bridge will remain relatively quiet. 

"There's no such thing as a day trip nowadays. They're not going to spend $100 and whatever it maybe to get the test just to come over for a few hours," says Alex Cook, whose mother owns the Palace Restaurant in Sault, Michigan.

"Prior to all this you could go over, have lunch and be back in an hour."

She says pre-COVID about half of their customers were Canadians, which forced them to close for a while early in the pandemic and the Mexican American eatery is still only open five days a week.

"When we heard the bridge was going to be closed, that was the biggest hit for us," says Cook. 

With 13,000 Saultites in Michigan and 74,000 across the river in Ontario, she says cross-border traffic is the reason many new businesses have opened in Sault Michigan in recent years and is "definitely keeping those things alive."

"The inconvenience of that test, I don't know if it's really going to do anything for us at this point," says Cook.

"Don't know if it's going to be opening the floodgates, but I would definitely say it's going to help."

Jeff LaHuis, the owner of Michigan's Sault Animal Hospital, says about a quarter of his patients are Canadian dogs and cats and a few are booked for appointments this week. 

"It slowed us right down that's for sure. We did get a pick-up because a lot of people on this side got quarantine pets, so that's kept us afloat," he says. 

"We're ready for the border to open."

LaHuis is also hoping some of those Canadian customers go back to bringing him Tim Hortons coffee and doughnuts when they come across.

"We're one city that just happens to be cut in half by an international border," he says. 

Crystal Lundgren of Sault, Ontario says the COVID border closures have had an "insane amount of impact" on her family.

Her husband is from Michigan's Upper Peninsula and is a temporary resident in Canada, with the pandemic complicating the process of him trying to get permanent status.

They have two children, including a son who was born at the start of the pandemic in March 2020. 

Lundgren would love to visit her in-laws in Michigan, but doesn't want to pay hundreds for COVID testing and as a nursing student, is nervous that if the test results don't come back in time, she could be stranded south of the border.

"We just keep clinging onto the hope that eventually it will get back to normal," she says.

Patrick DesChene, the acting chief of operations for the Canadian Border Services Agency in Sault Ste. Marie, expects to see some snowbirds heading south this week and likely some Canadians looking to be reunited with family in the U.S., but figures most daytrippers will be scared away by the testing requirements. 

"I anticipate there'll be a few people that might not know all the requirements and we're going to get a few bouncebacks from the U.S." he says, suggesting travellers check out travel.gc.ca before heading out. 

Dr. John Tuinema, the acting associate medical officer of health with Algoma Public Health, says the tests may be unpopular, but are needed to stop the spread. 

"I think it's a very useful tool in order to keep our cases low," he says.

Tuinema worries the loosening of border restrictions could see a COVID spike in Sault, Ontario, where 87 per cent of eligible adults are fully vaccinated, compared with 55 per cent in Sault, Michigan.

He also says with about 100 active COVID cases, the current infection rate in Chippewa County Michigan is about double what it is in the Algoma district right across the river in Ontario. 

"I would worry because it's a much higher risk than they'd be facing in the area locally," says Tuinema. 

He recommends that Canadians travelling to the U.S. avoid higher risk situations, such as a concert or hockey game, that they continue to wear a mask even though they are not required by law in Michigan and check the American COVID data Algoma Public Health is now posting on its website.