Nearly 30K fewer trips to U.S. from eastern Ontario border crossings in May

The Ogdensburg-Prescott International Bridge. (Nate Vandermeer/CTV News Ottawa)

May saw the biggest decrease of 2025 in the number of travellers crossing into the United States at the three main border crossings from eastern Ontario to New York.

Data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection show there were 136,916 total conveyances entering at the crossings at Alexandria Bay, Massena, and Ogdensburg, a drop of 29,332 total conveyances over the border from the 166,248 recorded in May 2024.

This continues a trend of decreasing numbers of conveyances from Canada to the U.S. this year. There were 25,000 fewer crossings at the three border points in eastern Ontario in April, nearly 23,000 fewer crossings in March, and 16,000 fewer crossings in February. Only January saw a slight increase of just over 3,000 more crossings compared to the year prior.

The Thousand Islands Bridge saw the biggest drop, with the number of conveyances travelling from Lansdowne, Ont. to Alexandria Bay, N.Y. dropping by 15,785 trips in May 2025 compared to 2024. There were 6,312 fewer trips from Cornwall, Ont. to Massena, N.Y. last month compared to the year before, and the number of trips from Prescott, Ont. to Ogdensburg, N.Y. fell by 7,235 year-over-year.

Customs and Border Protection says this amounts to a drop of more than 65,000 total travellers across all conveyances at the three land border crossings from eastern Ontario. The total number of travellers crossing by land at all ports of entry between Canada and the U.S. fell by more than 1.1 million in May 2025 compared to May 2024.

Data from Statistics Canada published last week showed there were 67,468 Canadian-plated vehicles entering Canada at the Cornwall, Lansdowne, and Prescott border crossings in May 2025. In May 2024, there were 91,790, meaning 2025 saw a 26.5 per cent decrease, year-over-year.

The data from Customs and Border Protection does not identify the place of origin of conveyances and includes passenger vehicles and trucks.

Many Canadians have been boycotting travel to the U.S. over U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats of annexing Canada as the “51st state” and over broader concerns of safety at the border.