In Point Roberts, tourists' slow return prompts questions about the peninsula’s future

Take a drive down scenic 56th Street in Tsawwassen, British Columbia, and you’ll pass manicured medians, brightly colored bouquets of flowers, and bunches of newly-built condos.

On the approach to Point Roberts, Washington, the border station looks like the guardhouse of a swanky gated suburb, rather than an international crossing.

“Technically we are a gated community, with really good security guards,” said Dave Duncan, a manager at the only grocery store in Point Roberts, The International Market.

As one of the first stops on the U.S. side of the border, the Market where the oddities of Point Roberts start for most visitors. Despite being in Washington state, the gas station out front lists gas prices by the liter, and cash registers have trays for Canadian and American currencies.

Encompassing just five square miles and 800 to 1,000 full-time residents, Point Roberts is what's called a "pene-exclave": a piece of a country isolated from the rest by another foreign territory. In this case, the 49th parallel clips a section of peninsula off the Delta region of British Columbia.

“It’s that little part on your elbow that you can’t lick,” said Duncan, who’s commuted to “The Point” from Birch Bay, across the borders, for the last 14 years.

“There aren't a lot of amenities up here in case you haven't noticed — you know, doctors, dentists, things like that. So, we're the crazies that like to have four border crossings a day.“

For decades, Point Roberts was a booming fishing town with busy coastal canneries. When the fish were gone and the canneries closed down, it became a tourist destination for Canadians. The peninsula boasts beaches along three sides, along with cheaper gas and grocery goods that are unavailable on the Canadian side. Americans here rely on border travel for Canadian goods and services, too.

That back-and-forth system was upended in 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic shut the border between the two nations. Today, Duncan said Point Roberts is still dealing with the consequences of that prolonged closure, and questions remain about whether the isolated town will die off, bounce back, or stay the same as both Canada and the U.S. enter the post-pandemic era.

On this year’s July 4 weekend, which signals the beginning of the tourist high season, Duncan said business was down by 30%.

“People aren't coming down to stay for a week or a month or whatever during the summer or holiday weekends,” he said. “And that has really impacted us quite a bit. We need a new roof, we need new refrigeration. So finding ways to pay those bills… it's getting rather tight.”

Pandemic closure

“Point Roberts is sort of the symbol of the breakdown in functional cooperation between Canada and the U.S. during the pandemic,” said Laurie Trautman, the director of the Border Policy Research Institute at Western Washington University in Bellingham.

Throughout the pandemic, Canada took what they called a "layered approach" to closures. At the start, crossings were limited to those with “essential” worker classifications, like Dave Duncan.

At the next stage, non-essential border travel was allowed, but Canada required proof of vaccination and a recent negative Covid test to cross. For each visit, the country also began requiring a digital form called "ArriveCan" with health information and travel details. Canadians returning home also needed to quarantine for 14 days and furnish several negative Covid tests.

RELATED: After two years of isolation, Point Roberts is open for business — sort of

For border-hopping communities like Point Roberts, these restrictions added more hurdles for outsiders to get in, and more annoyances for locals to get out. Point Roberts faces a particular lack of services, which was only compounded by closures. There are less than a handful of restaurants, limited schooling (most students commute to Blaine), no hotels or hospitals, and the only government building is the post office.

Local advocates led a press campaign to draw attention to the town's plight, eventually garnering the attention of Gov. Jay Inslee, who made a visit to the exclave and wrote a letter to U.S. Homeland Security and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau imploring a solution.

To help get people to needed services elsewhere, a whale watching boat was turned into a passenger ferry to Bellingham for close to a year– though locals today are split on its efficacy. Additionally, a COVID test exemption was eventually granted for those in Point Roberts to travel out, but residents were still required to drive through Cananda without stopping, cutting them off from services farther north.

RELATED: Ferry service boosted to U.S. exclave of Point Roberts, which is cut off by Canada

“The Public Health Agency of Canada was the one calling all the shots, and their number one priority was protecting public health,” Trautman said. “I will also say Canadian public opinion was not favorable at all to easing those restrictions, even when it came down to their neighbors in Point Roberts.”

Trautman said those border diversions are having a downstream impact on border towns today. The Border Policy Research Institute has found that compared to pre-pandemic levels, 2023 border traffic was down 22% across Whatcom County's five main border crossings. In Point Roberts, that traffic was down even more, at 32%.

Trautman believes that drop comes from a change in consumer habits hardened by the pandemic.

“We've certainly heard people say, ‘Oh, yeah, I used to cross for this or cross for that. And I just haven't really gotten back into that habit yet,’” she said. “So I think that's a long term consumer behavior trend that may be very difficult to start up again.”

Recovery

In 2024, border traffic continues to show signs of slowing, and some locals still believe an exception to border policies today is necessary to bring tourists back.

“Ninety percent of our economic activity comes from Canada. They're seventy percent of all our properties here,” said Brian Calder, the president of the Point Roberts Chamber of Commerce. “All our power, all our water… so talk about dependent on Canadians, there's nowhere else in the world that shares our experience.”

Calder said that Point Roberts should be an exception to the routine of the border — things like checks on fruit and plants, or the myriad other rigors of international commerce and security.

The latest issue is a new U.S. border measure to prevent the spread of rabies. Starting Aug. 1, dogs from the U.S. have to be microchipped, and owners need to complete dog health and travel forms before their pets can cross.

Calder sees it as one more reason for people to avoid the border, and Point Roberts, altogether.

“Citrus fruits, mad cow disease, gypsy moth... you know, costing us a fortune, harassing the people who want to come here. Now, you're throwing in a dog rabies one?” Calder said. “Close the border. Shut her down. Say we don't want anyone in here, close off Point Roberts. I mean, that's where we're headed.”

It’s a similar story across town. At the Bald Eagle Golf Club, one of the attractions for tourists, Rick Hoole and Tracy Evans have been tending the grounds for an expected reopening this year. The course has been closed for four years and Hoole said supply chain issues with the border continue to push the opening date back.

They’re also running into a common problem on the Point: a lack of employees.

“There's really nothing for rent, for anybody,” Evans said. “You can't lure somebody to Point Roberts because of a lack of housing – lack of affordable housing.”

RELATED: In a hot NW housing market, even isolated Point Roberts is seeing prices sizzle

Businesses said they would be open to hiring Canadians from Tsawwassen, but the visa process is often too much of a headache to make it worth it, along with the competitive economics required to compete with minimum wages and volatile exchange rates.

To make up for a lack of a younger or part-time workforce locally, Evans has advertised work in Point Roberts throughout Arizona and California, a strategy one of the local restaurant owners put on their radar.

But looking elsewhere has its share of challenges. New hires likely need a passport to get into Point Roberts, or alternatively, businesses need to pay the small private airstrip to fly them in.

“We're going to cross every aspect that we can because it's really a challenge,” Evans said. “It's always a border issue.”

At Kiniski’s Reef Tavern, one of the less than a handful of restaurants in town, owner Nick Kiniski said he’s ready to sell the business after decades of operating here, but is struggling to get competitive offers.

At a local coffee shop, Ian Paton, a member of the subnational legislative assembly representing the Delta South region of British Columbia, said that Canadaians north of the border are choosing their local parks over the hassles of getting into Point Roberts. Additionally, many Canadians who own property in Point Roberts, or have a boat at the local marina, are starting to sell off after not returning as often.

Back at his home, Brian Calder said Point Roberts faces a litany of issues — how the county is managing services and infrastructure from across the borders, the local zoning code, the reliance on septic systems. He said if outside officials at the county, state, and federal level don’t make more allowances letting businesses operate here — like visa workarounds, or border checks — Point Roberts will only fester.

“It's ever shrinking,” he said. “My position is the county's doing zero. The state is doing zero. And the feds are right in there with them doing zero.”

New in town

Even as Point Roberts’ story has become one of dire straits in recent years, new residents are choosing to move to the isolated peninsula.

On July 4, the main drag of town was lined with Canadians and Americans cheering a parade of classic cars and the local kazoo band. It’s another highlight of the ways Point Roberts’ personality is split between its Canadian and American roots.

At the community center, a Canadian flag is raised next to the stars and stripes for the day, and it's noticeable that most of the traffic in town is from British Columbia.

Emma Jones was running a lemonade stand with her family on the parade route. They’re recent transplants, living in Point Roberts for close to a year.

“We were doing full-time travel and were looking all over for different places that would be a good fit for us. And it just checked a lot of boxes,” said Jones, who noted the proximity to Vancouver’s international airport as a draw. “Being able to be in nature, that's really important for us too. It’s really a special place.”

While many businesses lamented the economic situation the border has put them in, several locals (and some of the same businesses) noted that the calm of the pandemic was a welcome reprieve from the influx of summer tourists. Some locals said they wouldn’t mind if a more isolated lifestyle – despite its ramifications – was the “new normal” on Point Roberts. For many, that’s why they came here in the first place.

As for Emma Jones, this will be her first summer on the Point, and her family is split on their expectations for a reduced but busy summer.

“I feel like it's really both ends – there's people that don't want to be bothered, they come here to be left alone,” she said. “And there's other people that are looking for a safe haven to build their community, which is what we're looking for.”

Neal King and his wife Krystal are also recent transplants to Point Roberts, and have opened a gift shop called “Kora’s Corner,” named after their daughter.

They moved three years ago, at a time when border restrictions were lifting, but when the Point was starting to deal with its pandemic hangover.

“We saw all the articles like everybody else did during the pandemic,” King said. “It's like, okay, this town is dying. And we're like, let's go see it, let's go visit it, it's going to come back eventually. “

King said that while there are challenges to running a tourist and border-dependent business here, residents need to also think about finding positive solutions. They see their recently opened “Rubber Duck Museum” (think Archie McPhee’s Rubber Chicken Museum, in Seattle) as one of those community-oriented efforts to keep people visiting.

“We need to see what's going on and react to that instead of reacting to what things were,” he said. “We're so quick to want it back the old way without focusing on anything new, and we really just want to push new innovation and positivity, and just really help people enjoy it and come back to us because of it.”

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