As the trade war between the U.S. and Canada drags on, Northern New York is taking an economic hit.
Newsday reporter Keshia Clukey, a native of Plattsburgh, recently published an article that details the impacts of tariffs and strained political relations on workers and business owners from a variety of sectors.
WAMC's Lucas Willard spoke with Keshia to learn more about the fallout between the U.S. and its northern neighbor...
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Keshia Clukey: Canada isn't some far off, distant land. The border is, like, I think someone even said to me - it's literally a line. Most of the people across the border have some sort of relatives that are in Canada. They visit them. Some people even commute back and forth daily across the border. The chamber calls Plattsburgh Montreal's U.S. suburb, so it’s really familiar for them. It's really personal for them. And so they're like, "Wait, why are we doing this to our neighbors?” And so I think that that was sort of the initial shift from the U.S. side. Now from the Canadian side, they started seeing fewer people coming down. A lot of the businesses on their social media started seeing some comments, some friendly, just saying like, "Hey, until this is sorted out, we're not coming down anymore. Sorry.” And some were nastier. One business said they had, "We're not going down to Magastan.” So it really got kind of nasty in some senses, really personal, and then it has kind of continued as we've seen these comments from President Trump about making Canada the 51st state, changing the name of Lake Ontario, and so they're really taking it personally as opposed to just your average Joe trade war, which kind of gets negotiated higher up.
Lucas Willard: Frequently, when we talk about U.S. - Canada trade and commerce in the Adirondacks, a lot of times we talk about the hospitality industry. There are a lot of visitors who come down from Canada to visit the Adirondacks, to visit Lake George, to see Lake Champlain in Plattsburgh. What have you learned from talking to people who work in the tourism industry about how they've been affected over the last several months?
Keshia Clukey: Yeah, so I think again, it started last year with seeing just fewer and fewer Canadians coming down. A lot of the marinas were hit hard because they're not putting their boats on Lake Champlain anymore, and then businesses that are close to the marinas, like Iris's Cafe and Wine Bar in Plattsburgh, are not seeing those people walking up from the marina, that foot traffic that they see in the summer. We saw places like Ausable Chasm are not getting Canadians, and Canadians make up about 40% I believe, of their visitors. Their campsite there was even more impacted. So just fewer people coming, which can be really hard when summer is their main business season. There are other attractions in the winter, and this year, those are still trying to see if people are coming back after that big dip in 2025, but yeah, just fewer people. They're putting less staff on because of it, and maybe also on the other side of the tariff, seeing higher expenses, and higher costs of doing business because they may get their distributors from across the border.
Lucas Willard: Sure. And not to mention the impacts on industry and raw materials, costs, and construction equipment. There's a lot of things that Canada produces that U.S. manufacturers depend on, and also likewise, Canadian manufacturers that depend on U.S. products. What were some of the impacts there when it comes to raw goods and how that ripples across the greater industrial sector?
Keshia Clukey: Yeah, so I thought it was interesting because the North Country Chamber noted that a lot of the businesses have maybe a base in Canada and then have an arm in the U.S. There were initially some discussions about moving to the U.S. to avoid the tariffs, and then as this trade war has continued on, there's just this uncertainty, and so businesses aren't making decisions because they don't want to go one way or the other, and then have things change so quickly, and then also just raw materials. You know, we're seeing things like lumber, metals, things like that that have this tariff on them, more expensive to build things. I talked to John Thatcher of a campground in Plattsburgh, who is a new business owner. He said he wants to build out. He's really excited about it. But every time he goes to do the project, the cost of it changes. So it's really hard for these businesses to figure out: Can I make that addition? Can I add on?
Lucas Willard: And what really surprised you while you were doing this reporting? I mean, we spoke about in the beginning of this interview: You're from the area, you have a lot of familiarity with how the Adirondack economy cycles, but what surprised you? What did you uncover that you weren't expecting?
Keshia Clukey: Yeah, I guess twofold. I thought it was interesting. The North Country Chamber mentioned that this is really generational for a lot of Canadians. So the older generations who know this this long term history that the U.S. has had with Canada, I mean, they fought alongside us in the Revolutionary War. It goes, you know, even to recent history with wars and support. And so that older generation are not coming back. So those people are just like: we're done unless something changes.
Lucas Willard: They took offense to it and they're out, wow.
Keshia Clukey: Exactly. And then the younger generations are still, especially people with families, are like, okay, well that's our vacation. You know, we can kind of get over this because camping along Lake Champlain has always been our family tradition, let's continue to do that. Or maybe they have family down here, you can't really move your family. So I thought that was really interesting. And then I also was talking to an economist from Buffalo, which of course the border runs 445 miles across New York State. It's lakes, forests, mountains, the whole gamut. And he mentioned that this really happens in shifts, in cycles. So when the Canadian dollar is doing better than the U.S. dollar, people come down to shop. When it's not, they don't. But we've also seen, as shopping habits change, things go online, fewer Canadians come down to shop, and just different cycles about different things happening. And the big question was: as these shifts happen, do they continue their habits and come back? And I thought that was interesting that there's this concern that ‘hey, we finally built back our tourism after COVID, or at least we're on our way to it, and now we have this other hit.’ So what does that mean for the future?
This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and then edited and reviewed for accuracy by WAMC staff.
