||| FROM THE OFFICE OF GOVERNOR JAY INSLEE |||
Gov. Jay Inslee sent a letter last week to President Joe Biden reiterating his call for a targeted exception to border restrictions for the Point Roberts community and a partial reopening of the U.S.-Canada land border.
The letter comes after 18 months of border closures and repeated appeals from the governor to the Biden administration to provide relief to impacted Washington communities and businesses. Inslee also requested clarity from the administration on circumstances and conditions required for entry into the United States at the U.S.-Canadian border.
The letter reads, in part:
“These ongoing restrictions are creating real and lasting harms for the citizens of Point Roberts, Washington, which is uniquely situated given its location below the 49th Parallel, as well as communities all along the border whose economies rely on travel and tourism by Canadian travelers. As I have communicated in letters to Secretaries Antony Blinken and Alejandro Mayorkas this summer, the harms and economic depredations experienced by these communities grow more dire with each month – and each monthly extension of these blanket restrictions. As the Point Roberts Chamber of Commerce wrote on Wednesday, September 22, 2021, that community alone is in a “desperate” situation as 85 percent of their economy depends on commercial activity by Canadians that is now impossible.
“Washington State is doing its part to help these communities weather this situation. In June, I authorized $100,000 from the state’s Strategic Reserve Funds to prevent the closure of the only grocery store in Point Roberts due to absence of summer travel. This week, the Washington State Department of Commerce announced a new “Border Business Relief Program” to provide grants of up to $50,000 to certain businesses impacted by the ongoing closure. The efforts of Washington State’s federal Congressional delegation to identify American Rescue Plan Act resources have also been extremely welcome. Yet these measures are only a temporary solution that cannot make whole the communities that are experiencing deepening harms under restrictions that have failed to adapt to events.
“To address the needs of these communities in Washington State, I ask that you work with your staff and Cabinet to swiftly consider the following options to improve this situation:
- A targeted exception for the Point Roberts community that would allow fully-vaccinated Canadians to enter Point Roberts, just as fully-vaccinated Americans may travel to Canada by land.
- Identifying options to at least partially re-open the U.S.-Canada land border, with a general reopening of the border remaining our ultimate goal.
Read the full letter here.
Background:
- Inslee letter requesting border opening between the United States and Canada (6/8/21)
- Inslee letter to U.S. Secretary of State Blinken reiterates request to open U.S.-Canada border (7/16/21)
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And…
I feel bad for Point Roberts; their people are isolated and the lockdowns from both countries have all but destroyed that community.
AND… Point Roberts is but one of the myriad rural and urban communities and businesses experiencing the same destruction. The reason for their, and our, woes is that the billionaire-bought politicians on both sides of the border, with their supposed ideological differences (which makes for great theater), have caused the economic and social ruin of billions of people, due to these border closures and sweeping lockdowns. Their latest propagandistic crime is the vaccine mandates and passports, and fomenting blame and ostracization of unvaccinated people, instead of taking responsibility for the mishandling and outright lies and scripted propaganda by big pharma and their colluders. There are so many human rights violations affiliated with their handling of covid-19 alone.
When sovereignty over our own bodies is violated, it greenlights all sorts of other human rights violations. If this vaccine gets mandated, what will be next? Why aren’t people asking this or connecting the dots?
Who profits from this emergency, or the last one, or the next one? Because there will *always* be an emergency. The powers that be, thrive and profit on them. That is the question to ask.
Washington is one of the biggest ports of international entry points on the west coast. Air travel to our major travel hubs all over this country was never stopped; no one coming into or leaving this country was quarantined, since the very beginning of knowing about covid-19, 4 months before it was declared a pandemic. Our ports continue to grow – mainly due to the demand for hangars for private planes. Only pretty wealthy people can afford to have their own planes and hangars. There are over 30 people on the waiting list for hangars at Orcas Airport alone, and the FAA says our port has to build them.
Gov. Inslee is calling on Pres. Biden to “deploy” Defense Dept medical (and other) staff to fill the jobs he himself destroyed. See this for what it is, and start asking the right questions.