Many independently-owned
duty free stores
at Canadian land borders are “just weeks away from closing for good,” a group of shop owners and operators said, as the sharp decline in cross-border travel takes its toll on their businesses.
In a joint statement released on Tuesday, the Frontier Duty Free Association along with mayors of some border cities across Canada, called on the federal government to help prevent the permanent closure of Canada’s land duty-free stores.
They said the sharp
drop in trans-border travel due to the
tariff war with the U.S.
has caused revenue losses of 60 to 80 per cent at many stores.
“Our stores are an integral part of Canada’s tourism fabric and border community economies, sustaining jobs and supporting the towns we call home,” said the group’s president, Tania Lee, who is the owner/operator of Bluewater Bridge Duty Free in Sarnia, Ont.
Barbara Barrett, the group’s executive director, said the impact “is devastating” and every store that closes means lost jobs, broken supply chains and reduced revenue for local governments.
The group said Canadian land border duty-free stores are export businesses, which employ local residents in border communities and generate significant economic activity in areas already reeling from cross-border tensions and pandemic recovery.
Barrett said that duty free stores have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic border closures and the current travel disruptions caused by the trade war.
“The government has committed to supporting businesses hurt by these challenges, and we are simply asking for targeted, reasonable support to prevent the permanent loss of these local employers,” she said.
The June 3 letter, addressed to Prime Minister Mark Carney and finance minister François-Philippe Champagne, was signed by 15 border mayors, including Jim Diodati of Niagara, Ont., Mike Bradley of Sarnia, Ont. and Trina Jones of Woodstock, NB.
The letter said the export businesses support tourism and keep Canadian dollars in Canada. The group emphasized that they are small, independent and Canadian-owned, not big-box outlets or multinational franchises.
“As your government prepares to respond to the growing threat of U.S. tariffs, we urge you to immediately recognize the urgent crisis already unfolding in our communities — a crisis that could see long-standing small businesses shut their doors within weeks,” they wrote.
In the letter, the mayors urged the government to deliver immediate liquidity support to the businesses and issue a ministerial directive reaffirming the export status of land border duty-free stores and removing all regulatory ambiguity. They also called for the alignment of excise tax policy with export status, to level the playing field with U.S. competitors.
Statistics Canada’s latest data on travel between Canada and other countries show a 17.4 per cent decline in the number of trips to Canada by overseas residents
in March, the sixth consecutive month
of year-over-year declines. The number of trips to Canada by U.S. residents dropped 6.6 per cent year over year the same month, to 1.2 million trips.
U.S. resident arrivals to Canada by automobile were down 8.7 per cent year over year in March, the second consecutive year-over-year monthly decline.
In terms of air travel,
trans-border traffic to the U.S.
dropped for the third month in a row in April to 1.1 millon, 5.8 per cent lower than in 2024, Statistics Canada said in a separate report on airport traffic. It said trans-border passenger counts were also significantly lower in April, down 12.5 per cent from the pre-pandemic level recorded in April 2019.
• Email: dpaglinawan@postmedia.com
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Independent duty free shops 'just weeks away from closing' as cross-border travel plummets
2025-06-03 18:25:20
