Number of Canadian visitors to Hi-Line falls

Signs that read “Havre Welcomes Canadians” still grace the windows of stores and restaurants throughout the city, but with their currency falling in value, area businesses say they are seeing fewer Canadians.

“It's been real heavy,” said Scott Young, owner of Norman’s, a western clothing and apparel store on 3rd Avenue. “They're not coming down anymore.”

The Canadian dollar as of Friday afternoon is worth 75 cents to the U.S dollar, and has been experiencing a decline in value over the past year. Unlike the U.S dollar, the strength of Canada's currency is directly linked to the commodities market. So when oil and natural gas prices started plummeting earlier this year, so too did the worth of the Canadian dollar.

Bob Sivertsen, president of the Highway 2 Association, which works to foster closer economic ties between Alberta and the Hi-Line, said that when it comes to the effects of fluctuating currency values, it’s all matter of degree.

“If it remains in the 90-cent range, it doesn't slow down the Canadian traffic that much,” said Sivertsen. “But when it gets to 75 cents to our dollar, that is when it starts to have an impact.”

The local retail markets are taking a hit. Young says his store has seen a decrease of 40 percent in Canadian customers. Those who do come in have told him that the change in the exchange rates, which are the value of their country's dollar in relation to the U.S dollar, has made them more frugal, at least as it applies to spending south of the border.

For example, the Miss Me women's jeans Young carries used to cost much less at his store than they did up in Canada, but now as the amount they are saving has decreased the trips Canadians make to Hi-Line stores are becoming more infrequent.

Retail is not the only sector of the economy suffering from less Canadian traffic. At 4B’s Restaurant, located on 1st Street West waitress Carol Wolf sees evidence of that frugality, in the form of more empty tables and booths.

“They did not come down in force as much as they (usually) do,” said Wolf, who added that the exchange rates had a negative effect on the restaurant’s Labor Day weekend business. “We're not getting near the Canadians this year as we did last year.”

Wolf said the Fossil Festival, the once-every-five-year reunion of graduates of Hi-Line-area high schools that took place that weekend, helped offset some of the losses from the lack of Canadian customers.

Kim Owens, the office manager at Havre Beneath The Streets, a museum showcasing the history of the city that often attracts tourists, says the flow of business is down but not dramatically.

Though they do not maintain any kind of tally of Canadian tourists or those from out of state who come to the museum, Owens said they ask people where they are from. She said many visitors factor the cost into their traveling plans in advance.

“They're planning to come in for business or just to shop and they are making a plan ahead of time and budgeting for it,” Owens said.

A multitude of factors are often behind the strength or weakness of a currency, but Sivertsen said Canadian politicians are fearful that the weakening currency may cause the cost of living to rise. Pending Canadian elections set for October could prompt policymakers to try and take action before voters take out their frustration on them, he predicted.

In the end though, things won't start looking up for many Havre businesses until Canadian consumers, and their money, start heading south again.