Ian Jacques / Delta Optimist
3月21日，美国和加拿大将临时限制穿越美加土地边界的所有不必要的旅行。非必要旅行包括被视为旅游或休闲的旅行。包括计划进入罗伯茨角（Point Roberts）的南三角洲人，将在周六凌晨受到限制。
据总理贾斯汀·特鲁多（Justin Trudeau）称，该措施将实施30天，然后进行审核。
特鲁多在一份媒体声明中说：“包括卡车在内的供应链将不受这一措施的影响。” “美加两国每天都要通过陆地边界从事必要的工作或出于其他紧急或必要的情形将不会受到影响。”
Point Roberts消防局局长克里斯托弗·卡尔顿说，他的部门会继续与边境官员合作，以确保来自加拿大的28名志愿者能够越境并为他的社区服务。
“我相信我们不会受到负面影响。目前，他们更多是基于雇主，他们没有意识到他们也是在我公司工作的雇员，法律上也允许他们过境并以这种身份自愿。” Carleton说。 “我与美国海关边境保护局和加拿大边境服务局的关系非常好，由于我所在社区的人口统计学特点，我们对这一需求有很好的了解。我对这两个机构都表示最崇高的敬意，并将继续竭尽所能，以确保我们的成员被允许越过边界，并继续为罗伯特角社区提供紧急服务提供者服务。”
卡尔顿说，尽管有关闭的消息，但社区仍然保持积极态度，并正在竭尽所能地提供帮助。
他说：“作为一个社区，我们非常有韧性-在其他社区中您可能看不到这种东西。” “我们知道我们将要减少商务活动，但是常规商务和贸易不应受到该非必要旅行指令的影响。希望我们能够继续我们的生活所必需的一切商品，但是对于我们习惯于业务的常规经济学而言，这很可能会在一定程度上降低。
“现在，让我们所有的社区成员尽其所能支持Point Roberts内的企业，这比以往任何时候都更为重要。我对所有开放进行业务的企业表示敬意，并向社区伸出援助之手，以帮助所有这些工作顺利完成。我为社区感到自豪。”
In Out Parcel的所有者在一封电子邮件中说，一旦限制出入境，会有住在Point Roberts的工作人员来处理接收和转发包裹。
他说：“自动柜服务仍可为少数仍可越境的客户提供，可能适用于具有双重国籍或工作签证的人。” “本周收到的包裹已经下降了50％，我们预计下周将进一步下降到20％，在接下来的几周内可能会下降到通常水平的10％。”
“与此同时，由于担心边境关闭，工作人员数量减少，一些居住在加拿大的工作人员决定留在家里。裁减的员工非常忙于将包裹运送给客户到加拿大。”
他鼓励客户保持最新状态：https：//inoutparcel.com/coronavirus/。
同时，成立于Whatcom县以应对COVID-19危机的组织Whatcom Unified Command，已成立了一个国际工作队，以帮助解决有关边境关闭的担忧。
在一份新闻稿中，工作队表示，他们将确保满足罗伯特角所有居民的需求，并确保其连续性，同时保护其公民。
Canadians wishing to head south, including those in South Delta looking to cross into Point Roberts, will be restricted as of early Saturday morning.
On March 21, the U.S. and Canada will temporarily restrict all non-essential travel across the U.S.-Canada land border. Non-essential travel includes travel that is considered tourism or recreation. According to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the measure will be in place for 30 days, and then reviewed.
“Supply chains, including trucking, will not be impacted by this measure,” said Trudeau in a media statement. “Americans and Canadians cross the land border every day to do essential work or for other urgent or essential reasons and that travel will not be impacted.”
Point Roberts fire Chief Christopher Carleton said his department continues to work with border officials to ensure that the 28 volunteers from Canada will be able to cross and serve his community.
“I don’t believe we will be negatively affected. It is more employer-based at this time with them not acknowledging they are employees that work for my agency as well that are legally allowed to cross the border and volunteer in that capacity,” said Carleton. “The relationship I have with Customs Border Protection U.S. and also Canadian Border Services is a very good relationship and we have a good understanding of the need due to the demographical location of my community. I have the highest respect for both agencies and will continue doing everything we can to make sure our members are allowed to come across the border and continue to serve the community of Point Roberts as emergency service providers.”
Carleton said despite news of the closure, the community remains positive and is working hard to help out where ever they can.
“We are extremely resilient as a community – something that you don’t maybe see in other communities,” he said. “We know we are going to have a decrease in commerce, but regular commerce and trade is not supposed to be affected by this non-essential travel directive. We will hopefully still be able to get all commerce through for the necessities that we need to continue our lives, but for the regular economics that we are used to in our businesses, that will most likely decrease to a degree.
“It’s never been more important than now to have all our community members support the businesses within Point Roberts to the best of their ability. My hats off to all the businesses that are staying open for carry-out and extending their hands to the community to help all of this get through this. I’m very proud with my community.”
The owner of In Out Parcel, told the Optimist in an email that once the closure is in place, there will be staff living in Point Roberts to handle receiving and forwarding.
“Automated locker service is still available for the few customers that can still cross border, potentially for people that have dual citizenship or work visas,” he said. “There is already a 50 per cent drop for incoming packages this week, and we anticipate to drop further to 20 per cent next week, and perhaps below to 10 per cent of our usual volume in the coming weeks.
“In the meantime, with a reduced staff count due to concerns of border closing, some staff that are living in Canada decided to stay home. The reduced staff are very busy forwarding packages to customers to Canada.”
He encourages customers to stay up to date at: https://inoutparcel.com/coronavirus/.
Meanwhile, Whatcom Unified Command, a group that was set up in Whatcom County to deal with the COVID-19 crisis, has created an international task force to help deal with concerns around the border closure.
In a media release, the task force said they will ensure that all Point Roberts residents’ needs are met and ensure continuity while protecting its citizens.
Comments