On a sunny Friday afternoon, four customers were browsing the shelves in West Coast Duty Free at the Pacific Highway border crossing.
“We should have 40 or 50 customers,” Gary Holowaychuk, one of the owners told Global News.
“We are down 70 per cent to 80 per cent from where we should be. And it’s just very slowly, slowly getting better. I’m laying off staff, I am trying to keep the staff I have working, but it’s very, very difficult.”
Holowaychuk said that while the sun is shining, it is “pretty dismal” for the business.
He said in January and February, sales were up 30 to 40 per cent from 2024.
“March rolled around, we dropped about 25 per cent and thereafter we’ve seen the traffic dropping that 45 to 55 per cent. So you add that to the down from where we were with COVID, we’re down 70 or 80 per cent.”
Holowaychuk is hopeful July and August will be better with summer travel, but even on Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump announced he will impose a 35 per cent tariff on Canadian goods on Aug. 1.
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“It’s like another gut punch, every, almost every time he opens up and says anything, we notice it right away,” Holowaychuk said.
“We’re like, we’re on the front line. We were the first hit when he got office, we were the deepest hit, much like COVID when they closed the borders. We were the first and the hardest hit.”
New data from Statistics Canada, released on Friday, showed cross-border travel is still in steep decline.
The number of Canadians crossing the border by car in June was down 33 per cent, compared to the same month in 2024.
Holowaychuk said they are hoping the federal government will step in and help.
“We’ve got some small requests for them to help us be more competitive,” he said.
“We’re looking for some little legislative changes. We are looking for anything that they can do to help us weather this storm. We’ve got a number of border stores that are on the verge of closing. They don’t have a good summer, they won’t make it through the next winter.”
Holowaychuk said last month alone, they lost $100,000.
He’s hopeful that will not continue to be the case.
The Ministry of Finance told Global News it will not hesitate to bring forward measures to support workers and businesses but it would not provide specifics.
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