A Call to Reopen the Canadian Border for Northwest Angle Tourism

NORTHWEST ANGLE, MN (trfnews.i234.me) Minnesota Legislators are lobbying President Biden and others to reopen the Canadian border to the Northwest Angle in an effort to save tourism business at isolated resorts.
minnesota representative fischbach urges action to reopen the northwest angle the northwest angle the northernmost point of the contiguous united states and part of lake of the woods county has been cut off from the rest of the country since the border between the u.s and canada closed last year and while opening of a 22 mile plowed road i on the ice of lake of the woods that runs from war road to the angle has brought guests back to local resorts the solution is but a temporary one on monday february 22 yesterday u.s congressman michelle fishbach sent a letter to president joseph biden urging his administration to prioritize a bilateral plan to reopen the border between the united states and canada which has remained close to non-essential travel since march 21st of 2020 the letter which was set in advance of tuesday’s meeting between president biden and canadian prime minister justin trudeau was also signed by congressman pete stauber and congressman tom ammer we write to express our serious concerns over the continued closure of america’s northern border as you may know minnesotans along our canadian border we heavily rely on tourism and cross-border travel to support their businesses they have been hit especially hard by the pandemic related travel restrictions devastating local economies the letter reads the northwest angle is an area of northern minnesota that is mainly accessible by land through canada as a result of border closures stemming from the covet 19 pandemic businesses there have been cut off from tourists critical to the economic livelihood of the community to mitigate the effects of this border closure residents of the angle built a 22-mile ice road crossing over lake of the woods for tourists to use however this road will soon be unusable as the ice melts yielding the the community isolated from its livelihood once again with widespread covet 19 treatment options and vaccine deployment well underway we believe it’s time to safely reopen the route to the angle a 40-mile road through a remote low populated area to provide a lifeline to its struggling businesses there are many potential solutions namely a trade corridor that will allow all economic activity to resume on the angle safely with accountability as we approach a full year with the closed northern border it is critical to this remote community that a solution is found before access points are once again closed off for tourists michelle fishbach is the u.s representative for minnesota’s 7th congressional district i’m Neil Berg reporting for pageonepublications.com