METALINE FALLS – A weekend trip up to Canada just got a bit easier for Spokanites making the drive up through Metaline Falls with new extended hours at the border station, but it doesn’t seem like many North Pend Oreille County residents are celebrating.
“It’s just not enough,” said Stacy Pelkie, executive director of The Cutter Theatre in Metaline Falls, which would benefit from Canadian traffic during later hours given the evening hours of the theaters.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) sent out a press release in November announcing there will be adjusted hours of operation for 38 ports of entry along the U.S. northern border, beginning at midnight, January 6, 2025, which includes Spokane’s nearest border crossing point: the Metaline Falls-Nelway Border Crossing in North Pend Oreille County.
The new operating hours will keep the crossing open from 8 am to 6 pm — two hours later than the 4 pm closure time the crossing had been scheduled at post-COVID-19. But even with the extra two hours, the border crossing is still open for six hours less than it had been just before COVID-19, when the checkpoint stayed open until midnight.
The border crossing hours are a bit lopsided; those crossing back into the United States from Canada have another two hours to make the crossing, with the checkpoint closing at 8 pm coming into the states.
According to CBP’s public relations, the change, in collaboration with Canada Border Services Agency, will allow CBP “to increase border security while facilitating legitimate cross-border trade and travel.”
The press release goes on to read that CBP officers will be deployed to busier ports of entry, “enabling the agency to use its resources most effectively for its critical national security and border security missions.”
Located 10 miles south of the Canadian border, the Metaline Falls crossing is one of 13 total on the Washington/British Columbia border, and the closest to Spokane. The international border crossing is on Highway 31, a road that first connected the town to British Columbia in 1923.
“You could argue that 6 pm is better than 4 pm, but that doesn’t get us back our Canadian customers who would come to our events back when the border was open from 8 am to midnight,” Pelkie said. “Now if they come, they have to plan for an overnight stay.”
Overnight stays can create a financial barrier for potential Canadian visitors, but they are a good thing for Arlie Ward, owner and operator of the historic Washington Hotel located a couple blocks up the street from the Cutter Theatre.
Built in 1910, Ward’s mother purchased the Washington Hotel in 1973, and he became full owner after she passed away in 1996. He lives in the space where the dining hall and kitchen used to be and rents out the boarding house style rooms upstairs for $100 a night. He estimates he gets about 50 to 60 guests per month during the summer.
“It really hasn’t hurt me,” Ward said of the curtailed border hours. He added that his busiest time is in the summer, when hikers on the Pacific Northwest Trail come through town on their way to the Olympic coast. “Things are slow for me in the winter either way. But I do feel sorry for the other businesses that got a boost from our neighbors to the north.”
Pelkie estimated that the Cutter Theatre loses approximately $1,900 annually from the restricted border hours.
“It may not seem like much, but when you’re a nonprofit, it’s plenty,” Pelkie said.
Though the CBP committed to engaging with community concerns, when asked if there are plans to eventually return hours at the Metaline Falls-Nelway Border Crossing back to the 8 am to midnight pre-COVID-19 schedule, CBP spokesperson Jason Givens said that at this time, there are no plans to do that.
“Importantly, these adjustments have been made in close coordination with CBSA to ensure aligned operational hours that further enhance the security of both countries,” Givens wrote in an email. “CBP continually monitors operations, traffic patterns and volume, and analyzes the best use of resources to better serve the traveling public.”
The commitment to engagement and “listening” wasn’t enough for some community members, especially because some, like Pelkie, weren’t sure why returning to pre-COVID-19 operating hours was off the table. Pelkie told RANGE that she thought staffing at the crossing point was at the same level as it was before the pandemic. Givens wouldn’t confirm staffing levels, citing security concerns.
“I think it has affected the community,” says Shirley Botzheim of the limited hours. Botzheim has owned Sweet Creek Creations, a fabric and quilting store in Metaline Falls, for the past 30 years. “And I don’t just mean here in North Pend Oreille County, although it has. Our countries are too close together to make that big of a distinction timewise. [Canadian businesses] are also losing business.”
Locate ports of entry and access border wait times at www.bwt.cbp.gov.
Sophia Mattice-Aldous is a Murrow News fellow working directly with newsrooms at The Newport Miner and Range Media through a program administered by Washington State University. Her reporting is available for use via Creative Commons with credit.
Editor’s note: We have corrected the story to correct that the estimated loss for the Cutter Theatre is approximately $1,900 per year, not per month.
