After six straight months of plummeting traffic at the Sault Ste. Marie International Bridge, mayor Matthew Shoemaker suggested lower cross-border traffic could be the “new normal” moving forward.
Released earlier this week, July’s border numbers build further on a trend that began when U.S. president Donald Trump took office this January and immediately rolled out a series of tariffs and tariff threats against Canada and the world at large.
Last month, there were 91,967 crossings at the bridge – a 24 per cent drop from last July’s numbers, during a year that’s seen a 23.2 per cent drop in border traffic to date.
All categories of travellers saw a drop at the local bridge last month, with a 27.2 per cent decrease in full-fare passenger cars, a 21.5 per cent decrease in commuter fares, and a 10.3 per cent decrease in commercial trucks.
When asked by SooToday, the mayor chalked up the traffic drop to a sustained, increasingly entrenched effort to spend on Canadian goods and services in response to the tariff threats and annexation remarks out of the U.S. administration.
“Canadians have been encouraged to shop local, and we've been encouraged to support Canadian industry and Canadian retailers. That message is definitely getting through,” Shoemaker said.
“Even if a tariff agreement is struck here in the next while, I think people have changed their habits and are going to be spending more money supporting the Canadian economy for the foreseeable future.”
Most recently, the U.S. jacked tariffs on non-USMCA goods to 35 per cent after the two countries failed to agree to a new trade deal by August 1.
In early June, tariffs on steel and aluminum were also raised to an eye-watering 50 per cent.
Traffic at the border has shown a response in kind.
In each month from February through June, crossings dropped off steeply from their 2024 numbers, with 59,625 crossings in February, 56,441 in March, 50,937 in April, 65,366 in May, and 75,212 in June – drops of 13.5 per cent, 29.9 per cent, 35.5 per cent, and 29.8 per cent, and 26.7 per cent, respectively.
“Canadian travelers and consumers are spending their money here,” Shoemaker said.
Given the close ties between the twin Saults in Michigan and Ontario, Shoemaker said he’s pleased to see the Canadian response, while adding that “we hate to see pain inflicted on our neighbours.”
“I’m disappointed that it has come to this, but I think that you're going to see this as a new normal for quite some time,” he said.
In cross-border conversations, Shoemaker said he’s heard “there’s impacts, for sure” on the drop in traffic.
“I've heard ranges of 50 to 90 per cent drops in business,” he said.
“I've got a handful of colleagues, also a handful of friends that live over there, and I've heard that there's been big impacts in restaurants and consumer facing shops and package shipment places that have been popular across the river for many years.”
The Sault, Michigan chamber of commerce, however, told a different story – telling SooToday it has yet to hear of any harsh consequences from businesses across the river.
“I haven't personally seen any less Canadians coming across, but the data speaks for itself,” said Tony Haller, executive director.
“Any of the retailers that I do run into haven't said, ‘Whoa, things are not right.’ I would hear something if something was that bad, but I think that they've been pretty steady, and the weather has had a lot to do with it.”
Shoemaker, however, said he’s heard from a numbers of businesses stateside, and that he doesn’t “think that the public messaging is the reality on the street.”
