U.S. Land Border Opening Delaying Kahnawake Ironworkers
Written by Paul Graif on 8 November 2021
The United States land border from Canada reopened at midnight this morning (Monday) and already the delays are incredibly long. As of 9 am the wait to cross into New York state via the Lacolle – Champlain, NY crossing to Highway 87 is three hours long.
Zander McComber of Kahnawake is an Ironworker with Local 40. He and two others were booming out at midnight for their week of work in NY City.
“I picked up two of my friends on our way to work,” McComber said. “We leave at midnight every week for work. As I got closer to the border I noticed the red lights from the back of cars and as I got closer I thought, this is not traffic is it? This was just before the overpass where the traffic started. If you’ve ever been to the border before that’s like another half a mile. So we decided check the smaller borders at Hemingford and the other one and they were both closed. We didn’t want to wait in that traffic so we came back home.”
He says they plan on trying again at around noon today. While being fully vaccinated to enter the United States is a must, a negative COVID test to go along with it, is not. However, Canadian travelers are wary due to the high cost of returning home. A Negative PCR test, that costs at least $200, is still a requirement to cross into Canada either by air, sea or land.
