Osoyoos designated one of three B.C. border crossings to accommodate Alaska-bound travellers

OSOYOOS (NEWS 1130) – Starting on Friday, Americans on their way to Alaska can only cross B.C. in three places – Abbotsford, Osoyoos, and at Kingsgate which is southeast of Creston.

It’s all part of new restrictions for Americans heading to Alaska by way of Canada. The restrictions are meant to discourage motorists heading north from meandering and taking in the B.C. scenery as the pandemic continues to rage.

The border is closed to non-essential travel, except for Americans who tell border agents they are headed to Alaska.

British Columbians have complained of seeing American visitors at tourist spots. Osoyoos Mayor Sue McKortoff says despite being a border city, she hasn’t seen American licence plates, but understands that other cities have had the problem, which is why she is in favour of the new restrictions.

“So I totally understand why it’s important to have something in place.”

She doesn’t anticipate an uptick in Americans travelling through. “We normally don’t have a lot of people come through this way on their way to Alaska, and I don’t think there would be a tonne of people going up there.”

She admits while they miss American visitors, her popular town is doing quite well without them. She says their hotels are at 95 per cent capacity and that the region has plenty going for it to draw people from within Canada.

“We have so many people right now filling up our hotels. We miss people who usually come from Oroville and Tonasket and visit our gyms and get their nails done. But because of local visitors, there’s no problem with our tourism numbers,” she notes.

“We have a lot of people here from all over B.C. and from other places in Canada too. There are a lot of people from Alberta here who own property and that’s okay.”

And she believes the summer resort municipality won’t see a slowdown for a while yet.

“It’s going to be like that all summer. And very likely going to be okay during the winter as well, because the snowbirds from Western Canada who normally go down to the States probably won’t. We have a lot of motels here. According to Destination Osoyoos, we have been getting lots of people phoning about being snowbirds here this winter. We are not going to suffer like some other towns will.”

The travel restrictions on Americans travelling through B.C. include a requirement that they stay in their cars as much as possible, and that they display a hang-tag on their rear view mirror.