GREAT FALLS (AP)
A strong Canadian dollar worth $1.06 U.S. on Sunday is driving a southern migration of Canadian shoppers to Great Falls and communities across the Montana Hi-Line. Crossings into Montana at the Port of Sweetgrass north of Shelby were up 62 percent over 2006 during last month's Canadian Thanksgiving weekend, according to statistics provided by the Department of Homeland Security. Overall, crossings from Canada into the United States at Sweetgrass are up almost 9 percent year-to-date over 2006, driven largely by Canadian traffic. Traffic last month was up 17 percent from a year ago, the Great Falls Tribune reported Sunday. Canadian shoppers are buying everything from iPods to tractors, as merchants scramble to capitalize on the trend. "I have Canadians in here every single day," said Alison Fried, owner of the Dragonfly Dry Goods store in Great Falls. There are no definitive numbers tracking sales to Canadians. Anecdotally, some of the biggest upticks are with auto dealers, implement dealers and others selling big-ticket items, where substantial savings make the trip south worthwhile. "The amount of phone calls that we're getting (from Canada) has doubled or tripled in the past few months," said Ron Harmon, owner of the Big Equipment Company in Havre. "Those don't all translate into sales, but just the fact that they're shopping at that level says something." Harmon told the Tribune he plans to increase his inventory to meet the demand. The market is for used equipment because many manufacturers prohibit sales to Canada to protect their Canadian dealers. Harmon and other business owners say that while Canadians gradually began returning about two years ago as their dollar gained steam, the biggest increase has been over the past two to four months. In September, the Canadian dollar dubbed the loonie for the bird that appears on the coin reached parity with the U.S. dollar for the first time in over 30 years. It continued to soar to record highs this month. The loonie's meteoric rise has outpaced the ability of many Canadian merchants to lower their prices accordingly. But last week, a number of Canadian chain and big box stores, including Sears Canada, Wal-Mart Canada and Indigo Books & Music, lowered prices to stem the cross-border bleeding, earning praise from federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty. Some experts speculate the exchange rate could rise as far as $1.20 American per $1 Canadian, according to Larry Swanson, director of the O'Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West, a Missoula-based research and public education institute. "How long this currency situation will last is anybody's guess, but I think the factors leading to it in the U.S. will keep this with us for several more years and perhaps longer," Swanson said in e-mailed comments
