A popular ski resort just south of the border says its doors will always be open to Canadians, even as the U.S.-Canada trade war continues to intensify. Steve Wright is the general manager of Jay Peak Resort, which sits less than 10 kilometres south of the U.S.-Canada border. In a post on social media on Thursday, Wright said Canadians had long been welcome at the resort, and that would continue to be the case despite international tensions. “The border has always been a line we’ve crossed. It never felt like a line between us,” Wright wrote. “However all this sorts itself out—and eventually, it will—know this: the border may feel different right now. We do not. You are our neighbours. You are our friends. You are part of this place. And you’re always welcome at Jay.” Speaking with 580 CFRA’s Ottawa Now with Kristy Cameron on Friday, Wright said he wanted to let his Canadian visitors know that he empathizes with the tough decisions they are having to make regarding travel to the U.S. “We’re not suggesting that they make the decision to come here,” he said. “We’re just simply sort of empathizing with the fact that they’re making difficult decisions right now and letting them know that if and when the tide rolls back, that we’ll be here and we’ll be here to welcome them back.” According to Wright, Canadians make up nearly half the 300,000 to 400,000 skiers the resort sees in any given year. Wright said he’s advocated to congress about the trade war, arguing that it harms border communities on both sides of the boundary. “I’ve worked hard both in running the business and trying to fix some of these things, and trying to get folks to listen to us, and we’re going to continue to move in that direction,” he said. “The problem here is that we need cooler heads to prevail, and we need that to happen pretty quickly.” Wright says his post was not motivated by finances. He notes that last winter, the resort posted record attendance due to favourable snow conditions, despite a decline in Canadian visitors. “If it was the money that we missed, I wouldn’t have put out a post saying, ‘you’re always welcome at Jay; the border has always been a line that we’ve crossed, it wasn’t a line between us.’ It would be an ad with a 50 per cent off coupon,” Wright said. Canadian visitation to the resort dipped last winter, but Wright says it started to rise again this summer. While the recent intensification of the trade war has not resulted in a wave of cancellations, Wright says it has caused their phones to “grow silent again.” It’s still too early to tell what the winter season will hold but Wright says he will be watching closely over the coming months to see if his Canadian neighbours plan to come back. “I’m looking into that to see, you know, are we accelerating at the rate that we should be,” he said. “It’s still a little bit early on that. But within the next month or so, that’s really going to tell the story for us.”
