Residents of Campobello Island will be granted a “special exemption from previous tariff countermeasures on U.S. consumer and household products.”
The news comes in a release from the federal government due to the special circumstances Campobello Island faces having no direct connection to mainland New Brunswick.
“This special exemption is in recognition of the island’s unique situation, which is only accessible by road via the United States year-round,” the release said.
Those who live on Campobello Island must travel through Lubec, Maine, when the ferry doesn’t run in the winter. There is no gas station, on the island or medical services and only a small market for household products.
“It’s great news, in my opinion,” said Mayor Harvey Matthews. “I think people have been worried to even go. It doesn’t help that people have been saying its horrible to travel through the states. People have been nervous to go over there shopping, especially older people.”
Premier Susan Holt said she has directed the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure to look at bringing the ferry online early, which departs from Deer Island and starts in June, to bring Campobello residents to New Brunswick without needing to pass through the U.S.
“I got the news around mid-day today from Minister (Dominic) Leblanc and I was very pleased and grateful to see that the residents of Campobello can have this relief at a time when things have been really uncertain and really expensive,” she said. “I’m pleased the federal government acted quickly to get the order in council that we needed to get the exemption.”
Holt explained the recent news that certain critical services, like speech language pathologists, are hesitant and aren’t travelling through the U.S. to get to the island is weighing heavily in conversations around implementing a year-round ferry.
“Do whatever we can temporarily and then continue the bigger conversation about what proper service for Campobello looks like in the long-term,” she said.
Holt said it will try to communicate the exemption to border agents on the U.S. side of the border to ensure there aren’t any further impacts to those bring U.S. goods across the border.
She spoke briefly with Matthews and said he is pleased and this was something he was pushing very hard for.
“He’s been a great advocate,” she said. “Relief I think and pleased that we’ve been … that he’s been able to get this done for his residents,” she said.
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