Anderson: Packing your own lunch for a trip to Canada? Bring receipts to pay extra tariff

American pork and beaners are about to find out there’s no free lunch in Canada.

“Pork and beaners’’ is a colloquialism, or slang, used by some Canadians — usually in good humor — that describes American anglers, canoeists, hunters, campers and other tourists who vacation north of the border but spend very little money in Ontario, Manitoba or other Canadian provinces.

Instead these visitors buy food near their U.S. homes, minimizing the sometimes higher prices they’d pay in Canada for the same stuff.

Traditionally, Canada has never charged duty on these “consumables” — though technically it could have.

Now, in response to tariffs the U.S. has placed on a long list of Canadian products, Canada has imposed a 25% tariff, or surtax, on a variety of U.S. goods, including food brought north by Americans who intend to eat the food while in Canada, according to resort owners and others who have discussed the issue with Canadian border officials.

That’s in addition to Canadian taxes on the same goods, which could add another 5%.

Longer lines this summer to get into Canada, particularly through International Falls, Minn., and Fort Frances, Ontario, are expected as a result.

Canadian border officials have said they will open all four bays this summer on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at the Fort Frances crossing to minimize disruption.

Boundary Waters paddlers accessing Quetico Provincial Park at seasonal Canadian entry points such as Sand Point Lake and boaters headed to the Canadian sides of Namakan, Kabetogama, Lac la Croix and other border lakes also are expected to be affected. Americans who own cabins on the Canadian side of Lake of the Woods and other Canadian waters and who are accustomed to bringing larger quantities of food or other supplies north for longer stays also will be charged.

Receipts for food or other goods, including extra cans of gasoline, will be required, and border agents will use the receipts to collect the amount of surtax due. Even limited quantities of alcohol and tobacco might be subject to the surtax.

“If resorts in northwest Ontario make a living off of anyone in this world, it’s Minnesotans, in addition to other Americans,” said Gerry Cariou, executive director of Sunset Country Travel Association in Kenora, Ontario. “We love Americans. But this trade war is throwing a wrench into everything, and we hope it’s resolved quickly.”

For Americans entering Canada with food, tariffs and other taxes are expected to total about 30% of the goods’ value, figured in Canadian dollars.

Here’s the math:

If you have $100 worth of groceries in U.S. dollars, the equivalent is about $143 Canadian, at recent exchange rates. Thirty percent of $143 is about $43 Canadian, or about $30 U.S., which would be the amount due.

Americans can avoid the extra charges by buying food in Canada.

“Our group has bought groceries at the Safeway in Fort Frances [Ontario], but usually we’ve brought most of our food from our homes in the Twin Cities,” said Jeff Anderson of Edina, who has hunted and fished in Canada for more than 50 years. “The cost difference is one consideration. But mainly it’s the convenience of getting what we want at home and packing it for our trips. If you’re taking a floatplane to an outpost fishing camp, all that stuff has to be organized.”

Guests at Canadian resorts on the American plan, which provide meals as part of lodging packages, likely will see few effects of the tariffs other than possible inconveniences at the border.

“I put 400 people through our resort in a summer, and I haven’t had any cancellations,” said John Naimian, owner of Oak Lake Lodge on Ontario’s English River system. “Virtually all of our guests are Americans. Some have called to apologize for the situation we’re in. It’s just unfortunate for everyone.”

For years, Naimian and other resort owners have bought some supplies, including boats, from the U.S.

“But with exchange rates the way they are between the U.S. and Canada, and now with the tariffs, no one can afford to buy U.S. products,” Naimian said.

Many Canadian resort owners and outfitters struggled and some folded during Covid, when their government shut down its U.S. border. Some were just getting on their feet when spring floods shortened their seasons in 2022.

“All of this is bad publicity and makes it sound like Canada is retaliating against the U.S.,” said Eric Brown Sr., owner of Totem Resorts, which operates three lodges and three outposts on the Canadian side of Lake of the Woods. “What I worry about is that all of these tariffs will be settled in a month or two, and we’ll go back to the way things were, but by then some people will have made summer plans other than coming to Ontario.”

Brown noted that the U.S. plays the tariff game as well. When he came to the Northwest Sportshow in Minneapolis a couple weeks ago, American Customs officials wanted to see receipts for his resort brochures.

“I knew that we get an $800 exemption, so I kept the brochures I brought with me under that amount,” he said. “But another resort owner I know had a lot more brochures and it cost him $300 to get them through.”

Allysson Lohn of the Twin Cities, with her husband Erik, owns KaBeeLo Lodge in northwest Ontario. Allysson is Canadian, her husband is American and their children hold dual citizenships.

The tariffs won’t prevent frequent visitors to Canada from coming north, Allysson said.

“There’s always some level of ‘noise’ at the border, which isn’t a big deal for our regular customers because there always seems to be something going on between the two countries, whether it’s potatoes or beef or whatever,” she said. “But for some people who are on the fence about coming up, this might be enough to turn them off. For them it’s a fear of the unknown.”

KaBeeLo’s operation is unique, Allysson said, because in addition to a base lodge it operates 13 outposts. Yet KaBeeLo provides food for all its guests, which she said is more convenient for everyone, in part because of the lodge’s relatively isolated location.

“I received an email the other day from our Canadian commercial food supplier that said, ‘be sure to buy Canadian products,’” she said. “I replied that as Americans operating a business in Canada, we are super sensitive to supporting Canadian vendors. Our steaks come from Alberta and our potatoes, for example, come from Prince Edward Island. But I also said that our northwest Ontario tourist industry depends 99% on Americans, and they’re important, too.

“At the Northwest Sportshow a week or so ago, some people asked, ‘Do you like us [Americans], or don’t you like us?’

“‘Canadians,’ I replied, ‘have always liked Americans.‘”