Border with New Brunswick set to open July 1, with details still to be resolved

Photo / Peter Van Allen From the Lost Fishermen's Memorial in Lubec, Campobello Island in New Brunswick, Canada, is across the Lubec Narrows.

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By Staff

Travel between Maine and New Brunswick, Canada, could start as early as July 1.

U.S. Senator Susan Collins announced Friday that she “welcomed” New Brunswick’s plan to open its border with Maine.

The province’s “Path to Green” plan calls for allowing travel, but will require that 75% of New Brunswickers 12 or older have received a first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and that 20% of province residents 65 or older have received a second dose.

While hospitalizations have remained low, New Brunswick health zones remain at the “Yellow” alert level, a news release from Collins’ office said.

“This announcement is an encouraging step toward finally ending the protracted U.S.-Canada border closure, which has taken a severe toll on the many Mainers who have been unable to visit Canadian relatives and small businesses that have lost Canadian customers,” she said in the news release.

“I have pushed for months for the immediate easing of restrictions on border crossings given the relatively low incidence of COVID in Maine and Canadian towns along the border and the growing number of vaccinations. Although the ‘Path to Green’ plan delays opening the border for at least a month, it is welcome news that there is finally a light at the end of the tunnel for many Maine families and small businesses," Collins added.

Details of the plan still need to be worked out.

Businesses on both sides of the border have been affected by the border closure. While commerce between areas like Houlton and nearby Woodstock, New Brunswick, it may be reestablished in July, it's not clear yet how long it will be before attractions like Campobello, which is across the bridge from Lubec, are reopened to visitors from the United States.

Collins has spoken repeatedly with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas about the effects of the U.S.-Canada border closure on the state of Maine. In February, she wrote to Mayorkas to urge him to ease restrictions on U.S.-Canada travel and included copies of correspondence she had with both former President Donald Trump and former Acting Secretary Chad Wolf advocating for limited border crossing exemptions based on localized risks.

Earlier this month, Collins raised the border closure issue at a Canada-U.S. Interparliamentary Group meeting that included both U.S. Senators and Canadian members of Parliament.