Tariffs are the uncertainty of spelling for a family business that allows Canadians to use their US shipping address to receive state packages.
Halfway House Freight Re-Engineing is a place to collect packages rightly called halfway between the official border crossings of Canada-states united in Duende, which., And Fort Covington, New York, NY
A red door takes Canada, the other to the United States, and Canadians have been using it for decades to make online purchases in US stores that are not sent across the border.
Canadian customers enter the property driving along Chemin de Duende Center, a gravel road about 100 kilometers south of Montreal.
The main floor of the house is divided into the middle by a black line, marking where Canada ends and the United States begins.
Customers can walk on both sides of the line to collect their packages, which are stacked at the top of the handmade shelves by four created by the Patenaude family.
“It was something in the past, we had many people here,” said Louis Patenaude, who runs the business with his brothers. His father, Paul-Maurice, bought the building in the 1950s and transferred his family there from the southern coast of Montreal.
Paul-Maurice transformed the building of a hotel into a bar, which Patenaude says he became a center for the small cross-border community and tourists. His father finally became the mayor of Dundee and the prefect of the MRC du Haut-Saint-Laurent, before he died in 2022.
“We closed the bar in the ’90s, and Dad was looking for more to do. And the friends asked if they could use their American address to send products and, you know,’ go ahead ‘. And then one thing led to the other and said’ you need to start a business. ‘And that’s how it started,” said Patenaude.
The bar is still intact on the main floor. The beer bottles are stacked to the exhibition by collecting dust and visiting cards collected over the years decorate the walls between the photos.
These days, the house is used only for plots. Patenaude says they receive packages for companies, such as car parts for mechanics, as well as personal items for daily cheeses that order for many different reasons.
“I asked for a small alpine Christmas tree and an electric bicycle that was in the back of Costco Canada,” Chantal Barabé wrote to CBC on Facebook, who said he lives around Trois-Rivières, who.
“Although it is a four -hour trip, the trip is worth it.”
A house in the center of cross -border problems
With its unique location, Halfway House is located at the crossroads of key problems of the United States -Canadá, from border security and monetary fluctuations to tariffs and the survival of small businesses in the face of economic uncertainty.
Customers requesting the location are not exempt from government checks or rates. They must leave the property through the unpaid output, which leads to a Canadian customs control point about 100 meters away. Patenaude says that customs agents will not ask for a passport, but they will ask what packages were collected.
Come on9:14Tariffs spell uncertainty for the exchange post on the Quebec border
An entrance door is in the United States, the other door is in the south of Quebec. And it has become a place that receives packages for Quebers. Our Sarah Jesus spent an afternoon there and she brings us the story.
The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) said it collects taxes and taxes on imported items, even for online purchase orders.
“We prohibit all the products that enter Canada to ensure that they are properly declared and meet the import requirements,” said CBSA spokesman Luke Reimer, in an email to CBC.
A 25 percent tax on some goods from the United States has been in force since March 4.
“The CBSA works in an operational environment that changes daily and we are ready to respond and adapt as necessary,” Reimer said.
Patenaude said that businesses have slowed down in recent months, and uncertainty is the only sure thing. Customers pay a rate to use the Halfway House service. If less Canadians buy American products because they buy local campaigns or rates, it could mean problems for the family business.
“All I can see is anything to do with the rates will affect the common person. They are the ones who are going to pay on both sides,” he said.
While Patenaude says that he understands the impulse of Canadians to buy a local, he believes that they still have a reliable way of importing goods from the United States.
“I have many people with whom I have spoken that say: ‘We cannot stop, we cannot get it anywhere else.’
Patenaude says that his family intends to stay as stable as possible as the commercial war continues, but in the meantime, he hopes that the future has renovations for the building so that they can keep it in operation, and preserve family memories.
“At this time we are only trying to keep the building to prevent it from falling and preventing the business from working,” he said.
“We are doing our business, we enjoy doing it and we hope to do our best for the people for whom we have to do it.”
