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When the going gets tough, the tough get going

By Meg Olson

Things are a little slow on the Point these days. The Breakers is closed, leaving rock and roll pilgrims to stand in the empty lot with their kids and mourn the passing of the good old days. Stunned regulars of TJs Restaurant and Gambling Bar faced a closed sign on Tuesdays and Wednesdays for the first time in collective memory. Many businesses have shortened their hours and it’s a dark drive from the border to the Reef Tavern on a weeknight.

Is it the ripple effects of the border lineups after September 11? A weak Canadian dollar? Economic hard times? Breathalyzers going back into Canada? Or is it just winter in Point Roberts, with boom times well behind us?

“It’s quiet but it’s always quiet this time of year,” said Point Roberts Marketplace manager Jay Lewis. “After September 11 we noticed an impact but at this point I don’t feel there is any effect from the border.”
In September 2001, traffic volume at the border was down 31 percent from the previous year. Volumes hit bottom in October, down 54 percent from the year before, but started pulling out in November, down 41 percent from November 2000. In December, traffic was 20 percent less than it was in 2000, but two lanes were open at the border and waits minimal. But volumes were down before; August 2001 they were 23 percent less than that month in 2000.

“It went down but it’s pretty much back up,” said Joan Roberts at Brewsters. She and her staff scrambled to get customers back in the post-September lull. “We worked hard, sending out a newsletter, planning special events. Whenever you have a situation like that it’s challenging but it makes you look for different ways to defeat it.”

Roberts said part of the battle to get customers back was teaching them about new realities at the border – it’s not scary, just different. “We had at least 30 people turned away because they didn’t have the right documentation,” she said. “Now we tell people when they make their reservations. It’s an educational period. This is the way of the future and this is the way it’s going to be.”

At the Point Roberts Golf and Country Club, manager Mark Lundrigan said they’re telling every golfer who books tee time to bring proof of citizenship along with their clubs. “We had some people turned away but if they’re prepared it’s not a problem,” he said. “The guys at the border are so friendly, they come down once and they aren’t afraid to come down anymore.”

Lundrigan said his business had not only recovered from the stall after September 11, but was skyrocketing. “We’re booked basically every day we’re open that the weather is fair,” he said. “We’re the driest course in the area. It’s like summer conditions in winter.” He said his only concern was for the summer season, which traditionally has higher traffic volumes. Other courses would seem more attractive if coming to Point Roberts meant waiting in line for an hour. “They’ve got to do something so that doesn’t happen,” he said.

At Nielson’s Building Center, Lorne Nielson said walk-in traffic was down but construction on the Point was booming so business is good. “People closed up their cabins earlier when they realized it was a pain to come down,” he said. “There were some nice days in September when the marina should definitely have been busier,” said garbage man Art Wilkowski, who dropped by the building center for coffee. Lorraine Taki, representing the company that owns the Point Roberts marina, agreed. “It was a tremendous impact for us and the boaters,” she said. “They’ll have to weigh the inconvenience when they choose whether or not to renew their moorage.”

For Mark Fiore at TJs, the problem isn’t lines getting into Point Roberts anymore, it’s the possibility of a breathalyzer going out. “After the first month, now it’s strictly the Canadian border,” he said. Last summer, Canadian border authorities were authorized to administer breathalyzer tests to drivers they believe had too much to drink and turn drunk drivers over to Delta police.

Fiore said his business dropped 60 percent in the weeks following September 11. Today, it’s down about 20 percent from last year. By closing two days a week Fiore said he has cut his payroll by a third.

To overcome reluctance to come to Point Roberts for a night on the town when faced with the possibility of a breathalyzer on the way back, Roberts started an informal shuttle service, picking up and dropping off customers at their homes in Tsawwassen. “We started it for our wine dinners and the response has been tremendous,” she said. Fiore thinks the idea of a regular shuttle service, shared by all the bars and restaurants on the Point, could boost business. “It’s the way to go on the Point,” he said. “We just have to sit down and talk about it.”

Economics is a bigger factor than logistics, according to many business owners. More staff can overcome lines at the border, a shuttle can get around drinking and driving, but there’s not much the business community can do about a Canadian dollar that’s been on a downward slide since 1991. Many Point Roberts businesses set prices in Canadian dollars, but they pay their bills in U.S. dollars. “Our costs are U.S but we know our market is in Canada,” Lundrigan said.

The interplay between prices in Canada and where Point Roberts merchants can set their prices determines how competitive they can be. “The problem now, with the low volume and the dollar the way it is, we can’t give out the deals we used to,” Fiore said. Bruce Gustafson, who owns two Point Roberts gas stations, said businesses in Point Roberts need to be more than competitive to lure Canadian dollars across the border.
“For seven to ten cents saved a liter they’ll deal with some inconvenience, but they won’t for one,” he said. With mostly Canadian customers, Taki said the marina would take the fall on the weak Canadian dollar. “We’re running an exchange special to try and soften the blow,” she said.

Fiore, Roberts and other local gambling businesses are also facing a new economic challenge. Governor Gary Locke is proposing an additional ten percent tax on gambling revenues to help make up the state’s budget shortfall. An additional gas tax to help fund a multi-billion dollar transportation improvement plan is also being proposed. “If they do that we might as well crawl away,” Fiore said. “People won’t stop buying gas, but they will stop gambling.”

Business owners agree Point Roberts businesses need to work together and learn to operate in a new political and economic climate. “It’s almost a restructuring,” Roberts said. “The days of the big bars are over.” The Point Roberts economic boom of the early 1990s was fueled by an 87 cent Canadian dollar and 2.6 million cars coming to the Point, lured by cheap beer, milk and gas and a party on Sunday. But both before and after, yearly traffic volumes stayed well below a million. “The boom was a fluke,” Wilkowski said. “It’ll never come back.”

Roberts thinks businesses should collaborate more to work around the thornier problems of doing business on the Point. “I’d like to see the businesses network better,” she said. “We all face similar challenges.

Maybe we can be helped by similar solutions.” She cited a recent ad sponsored by the Point Roberts Chamber of Commerce in the South Delta Leader telling neighboring Canadians the border lines were back to normal and what they needed to do to make crossing a breeze: clean out your trunk, bring proof of citizenship.

“A lot of it is our own responsibility, not the chamber’s,” Roberts said. Restaurants and bars should look for ways to share burdens and opportunities, like the shuttle service or closing on alternate nights in the off season. “Instead of competing we should work together,” she said. “Our season is so short we really need to focus on building our off season.”

In December chamber of commerce vice-president Matt Lang invited businesses and community members to a brainstorming session to come up with ways to draw more people to the Point. As an offshoot of the meeting, voters’ association president Tom Hollett is putting together an ad hoc committee bringing together the voters and taxpayers associations and the chamber to plan community events. “It’s ‘a promote the Point’ committee,’ he said. “We want to make Point Roberts more of a destination by offering attractions.” Some ideas so far are a kite-flying contest and theater performances at Lighthouse Park. “We’re looking to the community for more ideas,” Hollett said.

Gustafson said the Point needed to develop and market assets that would give visitors something to do, like a lighthouse and a public pier. “There’s not much here to bring people across the line,” Nielson agreed. He added that a mid-priced hotel on the Point would help make the Point a destination rather than a day-trip. “It would make more of a resort,” he said.

Depending on Canada for Point Roberts’ economic future is building on a shaky foundation, Nielson said. “I’d like to see more people living here,” he said. “We’d have more dollars circulating, more business and so more jobs,” he said. More people living in Point Roberts doesn’t necessarily translate to more local business. There are a variety of supermarkets, hardware stores, restaurants and taverns in Tsawwassen. Roberts said some of the responsibility for Point Roberts economic health lies with its residents. “It would be nice to see more local support,” she said. “We employ local people, so if you’re going for a drink, don’t go to the Rose and Crown, go to TJs.” .

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