"Believe it or not, with the media saying that the traffic's down 30 to 33 percent, we don't see it. Our sales tax has not taken a dip. That's our main income is sales tax through like gas stations and stuff like that. It has not affected us."
Mike Fitzgerald is mayor of Pembina, North Dakota. His community is two miles south of the international border and five miles from Emerson, Manitoba.
When I visited with Mayor Fitzgerald, he was breathing a sigh of relief after seeing a three-day traffic jam of semis looking to cross the border.
"That line of trucks was from the Canadian border all the way down to the Pembina Bridge. It was insane, the amount of truck traffic that was stuck here in Pembina.
And that was because of a computer issue? A computer issue on the Canadian side, and they were unable to process the paperwork, or the manifest, for the trucks. And it was three days. People were stuck here for two days straight."
Fitzgerald says despite the complications, he's continuing to see Canadian visitors in Pembina and vice versa.
"I know there's a couple individuals that go up north into Emerson right there and grab groceries on the Canadian side too."
Fitzgerald says for his community of about 500 people, the quiet pace of small town North Dakota can seem a world away from the rest of the nation. But at the same time, it's welcome.
"I work at the port of entry for a subcontract out there, and there's not much discussion on politics and tariffs or anything like that. Everybody just wants to do their thing and go on about their business. Is that kind of the rule of thumb for your town too? Yeah, politics are a sore subject. I wouldn't say sore subject, but they're a sensitive subject, like a very sensitive subject. Some people are very in tune with their Republican party or their Democratic party. Me personally, I don't have a side. So just do what's right. Just do what's right."
35 miles to the west is the also historic community of Walhalla. While Pembina is recognized for being the first founded community in North Dakota in 1843, Walhalla follows closely, being founded in 1845. Much like Pembina, Walhalla is a direct neighbor to Manitoba, positioned five miles from the International Line and a 20-mile drive from the community of Winkler, Manitoba.
Michael Cook is auditor for the city of Walhalla. He says Pembina is definitely the port of entry for Canadian truck traffic. At the same time, being on the Pembina River and sitting on the doorstep of the Pembina Gorge, his community has its own generator...
"Our riverside campground here is a big attraction for a lot of Canadian tourists. It's packed pretty much all summer, and pretty much all of them are Canadians that spend some time there. Actually, I'll speak on that too. Claussen's out of Winkler, they bought a property in town here, and they're opening up a new business, Wentworth Ag. So it's going to be selling retail grain handling equipment."
But in terms of Canadian traffic?
"I've noticed here, and I would agree with the mayor, said, you know, I don't have notice. I've only been here since end of May 2024, but I don't really notice a sales tax impact or decrease or anything like that. And like I said, I live right next to the park, and there's a lot of camper traffic that comes through there with Manitoba plates on."
Cook also suggested I check with the grocery store two doors down. It was there I met Robin Jerome. She was busy counting money from a cash register when we talked.
"...We have maybe just a little bit fewer people coming from Canada than we have in the past, but not, I mean, we still have people that come down for like just the random thing that they can't find up in Winkler or whatever. And if that's what you're asking, if that's the type of thing you mean, yeah. So I mean, we still have people coming in for certain kinds of chips or certain kinds of ice cream or random things like that."
Jerome says there may also be an inverse to the traffic issue, and that would come in the area of Americans going into Canada.
"...I have not been up that way since COVID, honestly.
So I don't, I know there's quite a few people that have, haven't really started going back that I know that used to go and just haven't, have not gotten back up there since."
The three individuals I had the chance to speak with did have one common idea about the decline, and that while it may be sidestepping the small border communities, it likely has more of a presence in tourism traffic for larger cities like Grand Forks and Fargo.
For Prairie Public, I'm Todd McDonald.