Essex County wineries raise a glass to easing of border restrictions

For wineries that rely on tourism — including travellers from the U.S. — news that border restrictions are easing has brought a sense of optimism, along with notes of caution.

Tom O'Brien, co-owner of Cooper's Hawk Vineyards near Harrow, Ont., said he couldn't be happier.

"Before the pandemic hit, we probably had about 18 per cent of our annual visitors coming to the winery from either southeast Michigan or northwest Ohio," he said.

Under new rules announced Monday, some of those visitors could be touring the vineyard as soon as as next month.

The federal government said U.S. citizens and permanent residents will be able to enter Canada for non-essential purposes if they're fully vaccinated as of Aug. 9.

It's the first time that international tourists will be allowed to enter the country since the border closure in March of 2020.

The following month, on Sept. 7, Canada will allow all vaccinated travellers to enter the country.

One expert described the plan to ease restrictions as reasonable.

 "We're only letting fully vaccinated Americans initially," said Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease specialist and University of Toronto professor of medicine. "They have to show proof of vaccination. They also have to have negative pre-departure testing for COVID-19, and if we take that at face value, that's pretty reasonable. That's as safe as it gets."

O'Brien is comfortable welcoming the visitors, as long as they know to wear masks when they enter and follow local public health rules.

Martin Gorski, who owns North 42 Degrees Estate Winery near Colchester, hopes the tourists will be back, but wonders what the effect of the extended border closure will be.

"I'm afraid a couple of years have gone by where we have not had the behaviour of crossing the border, so that may have an impact on people's willingness to come and see what's been going on here, but we hope that they'll embrace us with open arms," said Gorski.

After all the opening and closing in the pandemic, Gorski isn't getting his hopes up too much, saying he'd rather be pleasantly surprised, than disappointed. 

"I've learned that to embrace the future with open arms and without caution is not necessarily the best approach," he said.

Even with the border beginning to reopen and other restrictions loosening in Ontario, tourism businesses are still facing hurdles. 

Rebecca MacKenzie, CEO of the Culinary Tourism Alliance, said operators are having difficulty attracting employees right now — something that visitors to these businesses should keep in mind.

"And so one thing to be mindful is not only to be welcoming to our visitors from afar, whether that's other parts of the province, the country or the U.S. or international, but really being mindful about just how challenging it is for operators to still be doing business at a at a reduced capacity," she said.