Cross-border travel sees a remarkable reversal as American visits to Canada exceed Canadian visits to U.S.
The shift marks the first time cross-border visitor traffic between the two countries has reversed in more than 20 years, except for a period during the pandemic lockdown.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Winnipeg Free Press
2 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
What to know if your Air Canada flight gets canceled
Summer travelers are facing uncertainty as the clock winds down on a possible strike by Air Canada flight attendants, which the airline said would force it to cancel almost all of its scheduled flights as soon as Saturday. The Canadian carrier on Thursday began what it described as a 'phased wind down' of most operations that included multiple flight cancellations. Air Canada said it was suspending its schedule and trying to get passengers booked with other airlines to limit disruptions if members of its cabin crews walk off the job. Both the union that represents about 10,000 Air Canada flight attendants and the airline say disagreements over key issues, including pay raises, have brought contract talks to a standstill. A complete shutdown of the country's largest airline threatens to impact about 130,000 people a day. Here's what to know about the rights of passengers and airline consumer protections: Impacted passengers will be notified Air Canada said it would reach out via email or text to let customers know if their flights are canceled. The cancellations on Thursday included some long-haul overseas flights. By the end of Friday, the airline expects to cancel 500 flights. Flight attendants are threatening to strike at 1 a.m. ET Saturday if they don't have a new contract by then. If the walkout happens, the airline said it would suspend all of its Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge flights, but not the regional Air Canada Express flights operated by Jazz Aviation and PAL Airlines. How long the airline's planes will be grounded remains to be seen. Air Canada Chief Operating Officer Mark Nasr said the decision to lock out the union members even if it meant halting flights would help facilitate an orderly restart, 'which under the best circumstances will take a full week to complete.' A complete grounding would affect 25,000 Canadians a day who traveled abroad and may become stranded. You have options if your flight is canceled Passengers whose travel is impacted will be eligible to request a full refund on the airline's website or mobile app, according to Air Canada. The airline said it would also offer alternative travel options through other Canadian and foreign airlines when possible. But it warned that it could not guarantee immediate rebooking because flights on other airlines are already full 'due to the summer travel peak.' Passengers with the flexibility to reschedule their travel plans can also rebook their flights for dates between Aug. 21 and Sept. 12 at no additional cost, Air Canada said. The airline says that under federal regulations, flight cancellations caused by a strike or lockout are considered outside the carrier's control, meaning customers are not eligible for compensation for food and lodging expenses incurred during the labor dispute. Most of the union voted to strike Air Canada and the Canadian Union of Public Employees have been in contract talks for about eight months, but they have yet to reach a tentative deal. By the end of July, the union put it to a vote, and 99.7% approved a strike. The union on Wednesday gave Air Canada a 72-hour strike notice. The airline responded with a so-called lockout notice, saying it would prevent the flight attendants from working on Saturday. The union said it rejected a proposal from the airline to enter a binding arbitration process that would have prevented flight attendants from walking off the job, saying it prefers to negotiate a deal that its members can then vote on. Arielle Meloul-Wechsler, Air Canada's head of human resources, said the company was weighing all of its options, including asking for government intervention. Negotiations break down over pay Both the union and the airline say they remain far apart on the issue of pay and the unpaid work flight attendants do when planes aren't in the air. The airline said its latest offer included a 38% increase in total compensation, including benefits and pensions over four years. But the union pushed back, saying the proposed 8% raise in the first year didn't go far enough because of inflation. Vancouver-based flight attendant Henly Larden, who has worked for Air Canada since 2017, said the union also won't back down on its goal to get flight attendants paid for the time they're on the ground. Larden, 33, called it a 'very archaic expectation' to work for free during the boarding process. 'Just because it's a past practice doesn't mean here in 2025 that it's OK or it's right, and we want to change that going forward,' she said.
Montreal Gazette
5 hours ago
- Montreal Gazette
Union members interrupt Air Canada press conference
By Flight attendants crashed an Air Canada press conference in Toronto on Thursday to demonstrate their growing frustration over pay and working conditions. The flight attendants, who are members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), held signs saying 'Unpaid work won't fly,' and 'Poverty wages = UnCanadian.' The interruption pushed the visibly frustrated Air Canada representatives to abruptly cut the conference at the Sheraton Toronto Airport Hotel less than halfway through. 'Unfortunately, we'll have to interrupt this press conference here. I'm really sorry about the questions we have not been able to answer,' the mediator said. Dozens of long-haul international flights are already cancelled Thursday as Air Canada prepares for a possible strike this Saturday, Air Canada executive vice-president Mark Nasr told reporters. 'We are very disappointed by the actions of CUPE, which will potentially inconvenience hundreds of thousands of customers and Canadians,' said Air Canada executive vice-president Arielle Meloul-Wechsler. By Friday, 500 flights will be cancelled, affecting 130,000 travellers per day, of which 25,000 are Canadian. 'This is a situation that was, and still is, avoidable,' she added. Union members share the frustration, saying the company shows a lack of will to engage. 'They've preferred to ask the government directly for intervention,' said CUPE's Philippe Bonneville, who represents Air Canada flight attendants in Montreal. He noted the airline has already gone to Minister of Jobs and Families Patty Hajdu to invoke binding arbitration and force employees back to work before a strike has even happened. 'It's like the nuclear option,' he said. Air Canada has noted it 'believes recent government interventions in rail, port and airline labour disruptions in Canada provide a proven precedent.' Union members also hope to avoid a strike. Shanyn Elliott, a CUPE representative for Air Canada and former flight attendant, said she hopes an agreement can be worked out over the next day and a half, and a strike would be a last resort. '(Government intervention) would take away our right, as a membership, to vote on something that would be presented to us,' she said in a phone interview Thursday. 'The current government has been very clear that bargaining the best deals are done at the table, and that's something that we stand by as well.' Negotiations at an impasse Air Canada has been bargaining with the Air Canada Component of CUPE for more than eight months. The union served a 72-hour strike notice Wednesday, and Air Canada issued a lockout notice in response. The airline claims CUPE negotiators rejected an offer that included a 38 per cent compensation increase over four years (including eight per cent in the first year) and addressed unpaid time. But Bonneville says the 38 per cent figure factors in costs of the health, dental, and eye care benefit plan. 'It is not a 38 per cent pay increase,' he said Thursday. 'It's great to have greater health benefits, perhaps greater vacation, but that doesn't put more food on the table, and it doesn't help to pay your rent or your mortgage.' CUPE and Bonneville have said Air Canada offered a nine per cent wage increase, followed by a three per cent increase each year over three subsequent years. 'The nine per cent, based on our calculation, does not even recover the inflation that we've seen over the past five years since the pandemic,' Bonneville added. For Air Canada, CUPE's demands have been 'unsustainable' and have wasted precious negotiation time, Meloul-Wechsler said. 'They made the very last days of negotiations meaningless by making unsustainable offers. They refused our offer of arbitration to solve the impasse they had created, and they sent us a strike notice as soon as they were legally able to do so.'
Vancouver Sun
6 hours ago
- Vancouver Sun
More Americans are driving to Canada than Canadians to the U.S., report finds
More American travellers drove to Canada in July than Canadians did to the United States, according to a new report by Statistics Canada . This is the first time such a reversal has taken place since before the COVID-19 pandemic. The dramatic decline of Canadians travelling to the U.S. was sparked last year, with U.S. President Donald Trump's heated rhetoric about Canada becoming the 51st state that led to an ongoing trade war and lingering tension between the two countries. The data for last month shows that 1.8 million American residents drove to Canada, compared to the 1.7 million Canadian residents who made a return trip from the U.S. by car. Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sunrise will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. Both countries saw a decline at land border crossings last month. For Americans driving to Canada, there was a slight dip of 7.4 per cent compared to the same month last year. It was also the sixth consecutive month of year-over-year declines. However, the decline was much steeper for Canadians returning from the U.S. this July compared to the previous year, at nearly 37 per cent. Last month marked the seventh consecutive month of year-over-year declines, StatCan said. 'In 2024, Canadian-resident trips to the United States totalled 39 million, representing 75 per cent of all Canadian-resident travel abroad,' according to another StatCan report published earlier this summer about travel to the U.S. 'However, recent data on foreign travel suggest that Canadians' travel sentiment toward their southern neighbour has been shifting in early 2025.' Although the data reflects a 'notable change in travel patterns,' StatCan said it is 'unclear whether the change is temporary or part of a more permanent shift.' As for air travel, the number of non-resident visitors who flew to Canada increased in July. There were 1.4 million of them — up by just over 3 per cent since the same time last year. While the bump was largely due to residents who came from overseas (up 5.6 per cent this year), American travellers were also up by just under 1 per cent. The highest number of U.S.-resident arrivals by air was 31,600 Americans on July 3, before the Independence Day long weekend in the U.S. Meanwhile, the number of Canadians returning home from abroad by air last month was down by 5.3 per cent compared to the previous year. In particular, Canadians flying back from the U.S. also decreased by nearly 26 per cent since the same time last year. Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here .
