LThe Frontier Duty Free Association (AFHT), which represents the 33 stores along the Canadian border, including those in Stanstead and Philipsburg in the Eastern Townships, says its members are “the hardest hit among the hardest hit in Canada ”since the start of the pandemic.
For 16 months now, the duty free shops have been completely deserted, said Philippe Bachand, owner of the Philipsburg duty free shop, located in Missisquoi Bay, and member of the AFHT board of directors.
“What business could experience 95% loss of revenue and stay in business?” »Asked Mr. Bachand during a virtual press briefing held Wednesday morning with the president of the AFHT, Barbara Barrett.
The AFHT says its members have had to take on significant debt in order to survive for the past 16 months.
“Since we are export businesses and we are highly regulated by the Canada Border Services Agency, we have not been able to adapt our business model like other companies have been able to do,” he said. noted Ms. Barrett.
For the past 16 months, only truckers or essential workers authorized to cross the Canada-U.S. Border have been able to stop at duty-free shops. “During this time, we still had to support our inventories, our rental costs, while supporting our families,” added Mr. Bachand, according to whom the government assistance measures were not adapted to this type of trade.
“I don’t know which business can shut down for 16 months and be expected to survive without additional support,” says Barrett. We were happy to do our duty to help Canadians stay safe, but now the government must act and help us through this great ordeal. “
Requests
In this context, AFHT makes three requests:
A subsidy of $ 200,000 per boutique or an assistance program of $ 6.6 million drawn from the Tourism Assistance Fund contained in the last Freeland budget;
The designation of “export sector”, which would allow it to compete on equal terms with duty-free shops located on the American side and to benefit from discounts from alcohol distributors, in particular the SAQ;
Finally, the AFHT calls for a reopening of the land border in line with increasing vaccination rates and the decline in COVID-19 cases on both sides of the border.
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