Southbound trips across the border are still far below 2024 levels in B.C., despite a recent modest increase reported by Statistics Canada.
When the federal agency reported a 9.5 per cent increase in Canadian-resident return trips in May of this year, it was seen in some news reports as an easing of the travel reluctance that was trigggered when U.S. president Donald Trump launched a trade war and suggested Canada should become the 51st state.
However, a review of cross-border travel statistics for B.C. crossings, tabulated by B.C. and Washington State transportation agencies, show the numbers, while up, are still nowhere near pre-Trump levels.
At the Aldergrove-Lynden crossing, figures from www.cascadegatewaydata.com for the Victoria Day long weekend show the number of vehicles with B.C, plates making the trip into Washington State on May 18 did increase, slightly, from 409 in 2025 to 567 this year, but that was still far below the 1,511 recorded in 2024.
Overall numbers for the Peace Arch, Pacific Highway, Lynden and Sumas ports of entry for May of his year show that the number of southbound vehicles with B.C. plates was up 18 per cent from 2025, but still down 37 per cent from 2024.
There were 213,356 southbound trips at the four crossings by B.C. plates in May of 2024, which fell to 113,997 in 2025, then partially recovered to 134,992 this year.
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Cory Redekop, CEO of the Greater Langley Chamber of Commerce, thinks a lot of the increase was long-postponed trips.
“Maybe there’s babies that have been born, or there’s been business dealings that have been signed,” Redekop told the Langley Advance Times.
“I mean, eventually, grandma’s going to want to see the grandkids. The elbows will soften slightly because lot of these people [in the U.S.] are best friends and business partners and family members. And we’ve got generations of those connections.”
But when it comes to cross-border shopping and tourism, Redekop said “people are still very much plugged into supporting local,” shopping in local businesses and travelling to local destinations rather than the U.S.
“I think the important thing not to lose in all of it, is we have really longstanding, deep relationships with the American people and with American businesses,” Redekop said.
“And yeah, it’s distasteful how parts of that country have acted, and it’s unfortunate that we’ve gotten to the position we are. But I think what those relationships and deep ties mean is that the sooner we can get a resolution on [trade] and the sooner we can try to get this relationship back on track, the better.”