Niagara Falls, N.Y/Ontario (WBEN) - In June, the Canadian government announced that they were extending current border restrictions until September 30th. They have extended the restriction several times and the people of Niagara Falls, Ontario have had enough.
Niagara Falls Mayor on the Canadian side, Jim Diodati says that he intends to discuss the border restrictions when Prime Minister Trudeau comes to Niagara Falls, Ontario in the next couple weeks.
"The 30th, the Prime Minister is going to be in town for truth and reconciliation event with the indigenous community. So I'll definitely be bending his ear about this. I'm hoping that they make some announcement before the 30th that they're not going to continue [with restrictions]," said Mayor Diodati.
Many of the Ontario citizens are about as fed up with the COVID restrictions as Americans are. Many Canadians hope that Canada will get rid of the ArriveCAN app in the near future, "There's a big movement here in Canada to remove this whole unnecessary requirement. They're saying, 'Scrap the app,' it's the big movement. I think we've made the argument clear, there's not too much support for it outside of our federal counterparts. It doesn't serve any purpose, and we're hopeful that they're going to remove it," said the mayor.
The mayor also notes that if they were to extend the restrictions at the border again, it would be very frustrating. Niagara Falls is one of the most popular leisure destinations in Canada, they receive approximately 25 million visits are a year from tourists, a quarter of those being Americans.
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"We miss our American friends here and the fact that a lot of them are not coming here either because it's too restrictive at the border or they don't fall into the vaccine mandate category. We're all frustrated. You know, at one time, we understand why we created these border restrictions. That was to keep the COVID virus out. Well, now we know 99% of spread is within the community. So having these restrictions at the border does nothing but congest the border, and we need them free flowing. So we're hoping we're going to take a good customer service approach. The medical experts have said there's no benefit to this," Mayor Diodati says.
Governor Kathy Hochul announced Wednesday that the masks are now optional on public transportation. For Canada, you still have to wear a mask on trains and planes but other than that, the only obstacle when it comes to COVID restrictions, is at the border.
Is the traffic in Canada back to where it was pre-pandemic? Domestically, yes and more. For national travellers, not yet.
"We're back to 2019 numbers in fact, we've got better numbers than what we had pre-pandemic for domestic tourism. So Canadians are flocking to Niagara Falls, which is great. The unfortunate part is we're down 50%, of what we would normally have for international visitors, including our American visitors. That's an overall bottom line hit to have about 25% to revenue," said the mayor.
Mayor Diodati also says that he has been continuing conversations with Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, Niagara Falls Mayor Restaino as well as other mayors across Canada about this ongoing issue at the border, "I'm part of a movement of all cross-border mayors, along with industry, everyone from duty-free, to the travel and trade industry to the hotel associations. We're all aligned in believing that it's high time to remove these silly border restrictions and we've said if the federal government is so in love with this ArriveCAN app, make it optional, in the same way that Nexus is optional."
The mayor also notes that older people who don't have knowledge of smartphones feel as if though they are being discriminated against, since the can't get apps on their cell phones.
For the full interview with Mayor Jim Diodati, see the player below: