Herb Axten’s close proximity to the Montana border is more of a headache than a help since the COVID-19 pandemic hit North America.
The Minton-area resident, from southeastern Saskatchewan, relies on easy travel through the United States border, often heading stateside to Plentywood, Mont. for regular items like food and cheap packs of Bud Light.
On March 20 Canada and the U.S. agreed to close the border to non-essential travel, i.e. tourism and recreation. They’ve since extended the closure to May 21. Ottawa is pushing for an extension on the travel ban, possibly to June 21.
“Just to go back and forth, it's a son-of-a-bitch for us, because we're only 10 miles (from the border), 25 miles from Plentywood,” Axten said.
He and his wife would normally be using the Port of Regway to cross; it’s open 16 hours a day. The port sits 160 kilometres south of Regina and 18 kilometres south of Minton.
“Our doctor is down there and our dentist is there. We go grocery shopping (in Plentywood),” he said. “(Now) they're pretty stringent on who they let down. You don't just go down to Plentywood to get a 24-pack of Bud Light and come back and say 'gee, it's been a nice day.’”
Montana’s COVID-19 infection numbers are below Saskatchewan’s.
As of Tuesday: Montana had recorded 471 infections with 16 deaths and 18 active cases; Saskatchewan had recorded 599 infections with six deaths and 123 active cases.
Drinking in the far north, particularly in and around the northwest community of La Loche, has pushed up Saskatchewan’s active case count. Such drinking prompted the town’s mayor and council to ask the provincial government to shut down its public and private liquor stores.
The province obliged, initiating the two-week shutdown on May 10.
Regina has one active case, while Saskatchewan’s southern region has none.
The province has recorded 76 total infections in the Regina region. Its designated area includes a narrow stretch of land extending east to the Manitoba border and north toward Saskatoon.
Saskatchewan’s south region stretches the entire width of the province from Alberta to Manitoba, extending north past Moose Jaw and Swift Current near Kindersley. It has recorded 15 total infections.
Of the two areas, just Regina has recorded a single death.
As reeve of the RM of Surprise Valley No. 9, Axten has heard from residents who think Saskatchewan ought to speed up its economic reopening plan, given the area’s low infection count. “That's pretty common around here.”
“The border for us is kind of invisible. We go back and forth. My kids were born down there years ago … We have a P.O. Box in Raymond (on the U.S. side of Regway).”
The provincial government is in Phase 1 and Phase 2 of its plan to reopen the economy. Golf courses just opened on Friday, while parks and campgrounds are set to open June 1 (both part of phase 1); hairdressers, barbers, massage therapists and retail stores were allowed to open Tuesday, all part of Phase 2. The remaining three phases don’t have set dates.
Stateside, Montana started Phase 1 of an ambitious reopen plan on April 26, starting with places of worship. The next day, the government allowed retail stores, beauty salons, barber shops, massage and body art shops to open; outdoor activities and youth activities also resumed.
On May 4, restaurants, bars, breweries and distilleries got the OK to open.
“We're so far behind up here (in Saskatchewan) we think we're ahead,” Axten said, comparing the two plans.
The state’s gyms, movie theatres and museums were allowed to open on Friday, provided they operate at 50 per cent capacity with six-feet social distancing rules.
Axten hasn’t heard of any COVID-19 infections in the Minton or Plentywood areas.
Montana’s publicly-available data, more comprehensive and specific than Saskatchewan’s, supports that.
Of the state’s six counties that border Saskatchewan, only one, Hill County directly south of Cypress Hills Interprovincial park, recorded a COVID-19 infection — one.
The majority of the state’s infections have been in two southern counties: Yellowstone, which hosts the state’s largest city, Billings, has recorded 87 cases; and long, narrow Gallatin which borders Idaho and Wyoming, has recorded 149 cases.
By Tuesday, COVID-19 infections had shown up in 30 of the state’s 56 counties.
The data also show how many infection-related deaths each county has had — two in Yellowstone and one in Gallatin.
Unlike neighbouring North Dakota, Montana publishes the ethnicity of each person infected with COVID-19.
By her account, Jill Schramm says North Dakotans aren’t interested in infected persons’ ethnicities. She’s a senior reporter with the Minot Daily News.
People want to know “cities instead of just counties when (the state) releases their data,” she said. “They do (think that's too general), because counties can take in several communities.”
Minot is about a four-hour drive southeast of Regina, one hour and 40 minutes southeast of the North Portal border crossing.
North Dakota’s COVID-19 case count is nearing 2,000: As of Tuesday, it was at 1,994 infections; the virus has killed at least 37 people in the state.
Cass County, home to the state’s most populous city Fargo, has recorded the majority of those infections — 1,229. Fargo sits on the border with Minnesota, right on Interstate Highway 94.
“If you ask anybody, they're going to say, ‘Cass County, I'm staying away from there.’ But then there's a lot of population there too,” Schramm said.
The U.S. government estimates Fargo’s population to be 124,800 people.
North Dakota doesn’t specify in which county each COVID-19-related death occurred.
On the Minnesota side of Fargo, Clay County had recorded 318 infections by Tuesday; that state has more than 17,000 cases.
Schramm hasn’t heard from people in Minot who are worried about Minnesota.
“(The North Dakota government) lets Minnesotans go back and forth for work; people who live along that border, they're not restricted from coming in. They don't have to quarantine,” she said. Neither is there a monitoring measure for such people. “I don't know how that would ever be monitored.”
“The people living on (the Minnesota) border probably have more concern about Minnesota,” she said.
Unlike Saskatchewan, North Dakota’s government didn’t institute a region-wide shutdown.
“Certain segments of the economy were shut down, the ones that presented the biggest threat … most stores stayed open. They didn't get a lot of customers, but they were open,” including so-called big-box stores like Home Depot, Target and Wal-Mart, Schramm said.
Its reopen plan began on May 1. The plan allows most businesses and services with industry-specific cleaning and social distancing rules to open. Gyms, recreation arenas, sports venues, music halls and entertainment venues are all closed.
The pandemic has “just been hard all around,” Schramm said.
Back in Saskatchewan, from his home near the border, Axten is biding his time to get across the 49th parallel again, hoping he can safely resume his regular routine with an open border.
