Michigan

Michigan economy takes a hit as Canadian visits plummet amid Trump’s barbs

Published

3 months ago

February 26, 2026

Michigan economy takes a hit as Canadian visits plummet amid Trump’s barbs

Canadian visitors to the United States dropped dramatically in 2025 during a year of chilly relations between the neighboring nations.

About 10 million fewer Canadians traveled to the United States in 2025 compared with the previous year, according to Statistics Canada, a 25% decline that hit border states like Michigan especially hard.

Canadian visits to southeast Michigan fell 30% from 2024 to 2025, said Visit Detroit CEO Claude Molinari.

“That’s a large decline in a short amount of time,” Molinari said. “And it’s certainly having a detrimental impact on our area hotels, restaurants and attractions, which have been able to rely on consistent Canadian travel in recent years.”

The plunge occurred as President Donald Trump mused about turning Canada into America’s 51st state, accused the Canadian government of not cracking down sufficiently on fentanyl smuggling and slapped increased tariffs on Canadian products while arguing that America wasn’t getting a fair deal with its neighbor to the north. Canadian leaders have rejected Trump’s allegations.

Michigan business leaders told The Detroit News that the vision of a binational Detroit-Windsor economic region took a hit, but the underlying relationship between Michigan businesses and their Canadian partners remained strong.

“We know that Michigan businesses benefit greatly from tourism and from the business relationships that our Canadian partners have,” said Mike Alaimo, director of legislative and external affairs for the Michigan Chamber of Commerce.

“Canadians are very important to American businesses. We know that American businesses are important to Canadians,” Alaimo said.

Canadian visitors have been declining since the early 2010s. But outside of 2020 and 2021, when international and cross-border travel was restricted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the severity of 2025’s drop was unique.

About 25% fewer Canadians visited the U.S., including 22% fewer residents of Ontario, the province that shares a border with Michigan, according to Statistics Canada. Land travel drove the overall decline, dropping 30%. The final tally of around 29 million visitors was the lowest non-pandemic total since at least 2010, according to Statistics Canada.

John Popham, 43, of Windsor, Ontario, said he used to visit Detroit frequently, including for sports games, but said he hasn’t gone in over a year.

“It just seems like there’s so much uncertainty. We miss it like heck, because there’s a lot to do over there,” Popham said.

Popham said he used to post online whenever he went to a game in Detroit “because it was pretty awesome to see, like the Pistons playing well when they weren’t supposed to.”

He said he wouldn’t hold it against fellow Canadians who posted about spending time on the other side of the border, but said many Canadians have adopted a mentality of “shop local, support local” during the last year.

Decline ‘definitely being felt’ in Detroit

But the number of overall visitors to Detroit did not dip from 2024 to 2025 despite fewer Canadian tourists, Visit Detroit’s Molinari said, meaning that visits from other states made up for the Canadian losses.

“Detroit in particular and southeast Michigan in general is becoming a much more popular destination. The perception of our area has changed in a really positive way, and that’s helping us,” he said.

“If we didn’t have this challenge right now where most Canadians think it’s unpatriotic … to visit the United States, we’d be seeing a really positive as opposed to a flat trend.”

Fewer Canadian visitors especially hurt Detroit businesses, especially since the Detroit-Windsor area operates “very much as one economy,” said Eric Larson, CEO of the Downtown Detroit Partnership.

“We have leaned in to making sure that we are continuing to reinforce that this is a binational economy, that this region is better together and operates stronger and more sustainably together,” Larson said.

One factor that’s helped the city avoid the worst of the possible economic headwinds is Detroit’s strong sports culture: Many Canadians who live near Detroit support the Red Wings, Pistons, Tigers and Lions.

“We are still benefited by the fact that much of our binational region has one of the unique unifying aspects, and that’s sports,” Larson said.

But he said Canadian fans last year were more reluctant to publicly express their support for Detroit teams.

“I think the interesting thing is that while there are still season ticket holders and individuals buying tickets to various sporting and entertainment events, they are less likely to post about it. They’re less likely to acknowledge the time that they’re spending here,” Larson said.

Canadian statistics showed that same-day visitors to the United States (such as those who cross the border to see a hockey or basketball game) declined more than overnight visitors. Same-day visitors declined 30% from 18.8 million in 2024 to just over 13 million in 2025.

Larson emphasized that Canadians who visit Detroit to see a game or concert spend money at local businesses in and around downtown, such as restaurants, bars and retail venues.

“Every individual that decides not to attend an event … is not just the loss of the revenue for that facility, but it’s typically the loss of the time that they spend. They typically are here to have dinner first or after, so there is definitely a carry-over onto that,” Larson said.

Canadians fear ICE, ‘political tensions’

Two other Ontario residents who spoke to The News in downtown Windsor cited U.S.-Canada political tensions, more aggressive Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and the Trump administration’s anti-transgender policies as reasons they stopped crossing the border to visit Detroit.

Trevor Leeder, 26, a Windsor resident who has dual U.S. citizenship, said in a typical year he would travel to Detroit multiple times to visit family, attend concerts and eat at local restaurants.

“This year, I haven’t been at all,” Leeder said. “This year, it seems like there’s a lot of political tensions rising. It doesn’t seem like a safe space.”

“I know a lot of Canadians just hate Trump, especially after what he said about annexing Canada,” he said. “I don’t like that rhetoric either. For me, a big issue is ICE. It just seems like a rogue gang of untrained men with guns.”

He has a more personal reason to worry about cross-border travel, too. Leeder said his brother is transgender and worries that if he crosses into Canada, he might not be allowed back into the US.

“It feels precarious to go visit Detroit at this time. It’s something I miss,” Leeder said.

Kait Zeller, 35, said she used to go to Detroit “regularly, every other weekend to see a game or a concert or go shopping.”

Zeller, a law clerk who lives in Leamington, Ontario, liked to shop in Detroit because “the prices have always been a lot better” than in Ontario. She used to have season tickets to the Red Wings and said she enjoyed watching all the Detroit sports teams.

Zeller said she hasn’t visited the U.S. since 2018.

“I don’t recognize the country anymore. … The current administration needs to go,” she said.

Zeller said it’s unfortunate that tourism has declined, but “now, my friends don’t want to go over to Detroit either.”

Canadians reasons on why fewer are crossing over the river to Detroit

Canadians reasons why fewer are crossing over the river to visit Detroit

Michigan-Canada business relationship remains strong

While tourism-heavy regions in Michigan felt the impact of fewer Canadian visitors acutely, the trade relationships between the state’s manufacturers and partners north of the border remain strong, the Michigan Chamber’s Alaimo said.

“You have coastal communities that care more about tourism and about making sure you have out‑of‑state visitors, whether from Canada or the Midwest, visiting those areas and spending their money there,” he said.

But overall, Alaimo said, “this just underscores the importance of having a strong regional partnership, of having strong trade relationships with Canadian provincial governments like Ontario, which Michigan does an incredible amount of business with every year.”

Those ties are strengthened by the supply chains in the automotive and chemical manufacturing industries, which often send components back and forth across the border to make a single product.

“Obviously, in Michigan, we have a lot of important interconnectedness with our Canadian partners, and that’s not going to change,” Alaimo said. “We have a lot of members that do business with Canada and want to continue doing business with Canada.”

Canada remained Michigan’s biggest trading partner in 2025, according to the U.S. International Trade Administration, accounting for nearly $28 billion or 43% of all foreign exports.

Despite the fraying relationship between U.S. and Canadian leaders, Alaimo said, “We certainly know that President Trump cares about our trade relationships with our global partners, and he wants those trade relationships to be strong and in the American interest.”

“At the same time, I don’t think the fundamentals change. Our relationships with our country partners globally matter, but particularly with our Canadian and Mexican partners,” he added.

Alaimo said many chamber members “want to see more American options in their suppliers and in their supply chains,” but still want to do business with Canadian firms.

The Michigan Chamber will continue to monitor the trade negotiations over the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the three-way trade deal between the U.S., Canada and Mexico, he said. The agreement goes into a joint review process this summer.

“At the end of the day, they want what we want: a strong and robust trade agreement so we can continue to have resilient supply chains across the border,” Alaimo said.

Exec: ‘I think we’re going to be friendly again’

Visit Detroit’s Molinari told The News he believed Canadian visitors to Michigan would eventually return to their usual levels.

“They feel they’ve been wronged, and they’re protesting with their lack of a presence,” he said.

Visit Detroit’s position is “we’re not going to be upset with Canadians for being upset with us. When they feel comfortable that the positive relationship is back, we’re gonna be extremely excited to welcome Canadians to visit with us again,” Molinari said.

In the meantime, he said Visit Detroit has adjusted its advertising so it doesn’t explicitly target Canadians.

“We’ve certainly cut back on our advertising because, frankly, we thought it came off as tone deaf, saying ignore the patriotic message that is coming from their government to not patronize the United States,” Molinari said.

But he doesn’t think the strain in U.S.-Canada relations will last.

“I believe peace is inevitable. I think we’re going to be friendly again. And I think they’re gonna come back when relations normalize,” Molinari said.

Windsor resident Popham indicated he is open to returning.

“I’d like some kind of announcement or proclamation from the federal government welcoming tourists, especially Canadian neighbors, to spend our money there,” he said.

bwarren@detroitnews.com

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Michigan

Michigan gas prices fall 20 cents from last week, AAA says

Published

8 hours ago

May 26, 2026

Press Room

Michigan gas prices fall 20 cents from last week, AAA says

Michigan gas prices fell 20 cents from last week to an average of $4.63 per gallon for regular unleaded, AAA said Tuesday.

“Michigan drivers are getting some relief at the pump, with gas prices falling 20 cents over the past week,” Adrienne Woodland, a spokeswoman for AAA-The Auto Club Group, said in a statement.

However, the company said demand for gasoline is up, and both supply and production are down, citing the latest data from the Energy Information Administration.

Demand increased from 8.75 million barrels per day to 8.76 million, according to the federal agency. The total domestic gasoline supply fell from 215.7 million barrels to 214.2 million barrels while production dropped last week, averaging 9.3 million barrels per day.

AAA also said the price of crude oil has risen while inventories are down. The price of crude was up 25 cents to $96.60 a barrel at the end of Friday’s formal trading session. Furthermore, the Energy Information Administration reported inventories fell 7.9 million barrels from the previous week. U.S. crude oil inventories are at 445 million barrels, about 2% below the five-year average for this time of year.

“While the recent drop is welcome, continued volatility and higher crude oil prices could quickly push pump prices higher again,” Woodland said.

The state’s average price of regular unleaded gasoline is 63 cents higher than it was at the same time last month and $1.42 more than a year ago, AAA said.

The company also said Michigan motorists are paying about $69 for a full 15-gallon gasoline tank, which is about $18 more than 2025’s highest gas price in August.

In Metro Detroit, the average daily price per gallon is down to $4.63, about 15 cents less than last week’s average, but $1.47 more than at this same time in 2025, according to AAA.

The company said the state’s most expensive gas can be found in Jackson at $4.74 per gallon, in Grand Rapids at $4.67 per gallon, and in Ann Arbor, also at $4.67 per gallon. The cheapest is in Marquette at $4.36 a gallon, Lansing at $4.50 a gallon, and Flint at $4.50 a gallon.

Nationally, a gallon of regular unleaded gas costs an average of $4.51, according to AAA. The price is down a cent from a week ago and up $1.33 from last year.

cramirez@detroitnews.com

X: @CharlesERamirez

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Michigan

West Michigan honors the fallen on Memorial Day

Published

20 hours ago

May 25, 2026

Press Room

West Michigan honors the fallen on Memorial Day

As we look back and remember all those who died for our country on this Memorial Day, we’re also remembering the ones who made it back home. We found it fitting to share some of their stories from our recent trip to Washington D.C. with Mid-Michigan Honor Flight as our nation celebrates 250 years.

This is Mission 25.

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Michigan

Addiction counselor shortage hits Michigan hard: ‘We’re all struggling’ – Bridge Michigan

Published

1 day ago

May 25, 2026

Press Room

Addiction counselor shortage hits Michigan hard: ‘We’re all struggling’ – Bridge Michigan

Michigan ranks 38th nationally in terms of addiction counselors per person with an addiction
Heads of treatment organizations pinpoint high turnover and low funding as perpetuating the shortage
Many providers doubt Michigan’s addiction treatment system is sustainable in the long term

Alyssa Montague is no stranger to being overworked.

Until recently, Montague, the community engagement manager at Ten16 Recovery Network–Midland, was taking on the work of multiple people. So was the therapist who works under her.

“He was slammed,” she said. “I was slammed.”

Now, for the first time since early 2024, her team is fully staffed. But other addiction treatment organizations across the state aren’t as lucky.

As the opioid epidemic continues to ravage Michigan, the state’s addiction treatment workforce faces a shortage that hinders its ability to effectively respond, providers say.

Michigan ranks 38th nationally in terms of addiction treatment staffing, with 7.58 addiction treatment counselors per 1,000 people with a substance use disorder, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. Indiana sits at the top of the DHHS ranking, with 16.54 counselors per 1,000 people with a substance use disorder, and the US median is 8.79 counselors per 1,000 people with a substance use disorder.

Michigan has taken steps to alleviate counselors’ financial woes, offering $12.3 million through its behavioral health student loan repayment program through 2024 and $3.7 million to repay addiction treatment providers’ student loans. Beginning this summer, DHHS will provide internship and scholarship opportunities to incentivize new providers to become addiction treatment counselors.

Some organizations were fully staffed before the coronaviruspandemic, according to Paula Nelson, president and CEO of Sacred Heart Rehabilitation Center, which has locations across the state.

But, during the pandemic, many addiction treatment counselors experienced burnout and left the field, and many others retired early, according to Nikki Soda, of Sodas Consulting. Providers couldn’t attract enough new counselors to fill the dearth.

“Post-pandemic behavioral health demand increased way faster than the workforce development could, because we saw a significant spike in usage during COVID,” said Soda.

Ten16 Recovery Network–Midland is one of many addiction treatment facilities in Michigan. (Nate Miller/Bridge Michigan)

An estimated 1.3 million Michiganders with a substance disorder including alcoholism did not receive addiction treatment in 2024, according to the most recent data from the National Surveys on Drug Use and Health. The vast majority of those people don’t seek treatment, but providers say the workforce shortage makes it hard to meet the needs of those who do.

One Michigander dies from an opioid overdose roughly every six hours.

As Bridge has previously reported, Michigan has among the fewest behavioral health vocational programs in the nation. That substantially weakens the student-to-worker pipeline and means fewer people are being trained to help alleviate the worker deficit.

The shortage means that, instead of receiving dedicated attention from their providers, people in addiction treatment often feel they are told to “go figure it out,” said Josh Puckett, a peer recovery coach at Recovery Action Network of Michigan.

High-stress demands

Multiple factors perpetuate the shortage.

One is that working in addiction treatment isn’t easy: Counselors face high rates of burnout and secondary trauma. They deal every day with people at the lowest points in their lives.

“It’s not for the faint of heart,” said Anthony Dondero, an addiction treatment counselor at Hegira Health, which has locations around Wayne County. “I had to really wrap my head around and really process the fact that more of my clients are going to pass away from the disease that I’m treating than if I were treating just general mental health.”

High stress contributes to the high rates of turnover treatment organizations see.

Nelson said Sacred Heart saw 39% turnover of therapists and counselors over the past fiscal year, while its residential treatment program saw 62% turnover.

High turnover has affected the addiction treatment field for years, with average national rates above 30%. The turnover rate for all industries in the US was 3.4% in March, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“We’re constantly having to retrain people,” said Nelson.

However, finding qualified staff is extremely difficult, especially in Michigan’s rural areas.

“Ten years ago, when we’d advertise a clinical position in some of our rural communities … we still would get a handful of resumes,” said Sam Price, president and CEO of Ten16, which has locations across central Michigan. “Now, the competition is so fierce we can run an ad for three weeks and not even get a qualified applicant.”

Educational hurdles, low wages

To obtain their full license, counselors must be certified by the Michigan Certification Board for Addiction Professionals. While many organizations require their addiction treatment counselors to have master’s degrees, counselors can legally practice with less formal education if they are certified by the state board.

Counselors can practice without being certified as long as they are working toward their full license, which can take up to three years.

However, Nelson said, “Typically, after they get their full license, they move on to other opportunities.”

Many leave to provide mental health services, which often require less administrative work.

That leaves addiction treatment centers short-staffed, counselors overworked and patients in need of more attention than they can get. Because of high turnover rates, the attention they can get often comes from counselors new to the field, who can be ill-equipped to manage the complex needs of patients in addiction care, said Greg Toutant, CEO of Great Lakes Recovery Centers, which is based in the Upper Peninsula.

Dealing with the multifaceted needs of patients in addiction treatment is something, he said, “these newer counselors, (who) are making up the majority of the field, maybe don’t have all the expertise to handle.”

Also contributing to the shortage is low salaries.

While some private, for-profit therapy settings can pay up to $120,000 a year, said Montague, addiction treatment nonprofits, which are funded by both Medicaid and private insurance, can pay much less. The average base annual salary of addiction treatment counselors is $50,506, according to Payscale.

Providers struggling nationally

According to Thuy Nguyen, director of the Michigan Public Health Substance Use Policy and Economic Research Network, while staffing numbers at outpatient office-based mental health specialists bounced back from reductions during the coronavirus pandemic, intensive mental health facilities, such as those for addiction treatment, “struggled to rebuild their workforce.”

That is because, compared to before the pandemic, “the lasting strain on the health care system has unfortunately made becoming a health care provider less attractive than it had been,” said Dan Schwartz, vice president of public policy at the National Association for Behavioral Healthcare.

That might have been because outpatient settings are lower-risk environments in terms of COVID-19 transmission, or because they are less stressful compared to intensive settings like inpatient addiction treatment.

Additionally complicating the shortage, said Schwartz, is that too few people are being trained to work in addiction treatment, across the board.

And because of broad Medicaid cuts spelled out in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that Congress passed last year, Schwartz said he doesn’t anticipate the national shortage improving anytime soon. The National Center for Health Workforce Analysis projects that, by 2038, the US will be short more than 77,000 addiction counselors.

Medicaid cuts also greatly affect who can receive access to care.

“One of the most significant challenges is access to care for uninsured Michigan residents, who remain the most underserved population,” DHHS said in a statement. “Federal and state funding to support uninsured individuals has not kept pace with demand.”

Some support has come from the federal level in the form of the Opioid Workforce Expansion Program, which provides funding to train students in addiction treatment settings.

Some states have dealt with the shortage better than others. Nguyen cited Massachusetts as a role model for other states recovering from pandemic-era reductions. Since 2022, the state has provided more than $270 million to repay loans of direct care providers including addiction treatment professionals, alleviating some of their financial strain.

‘Wake up’

Treatment organizations across Michigan have trouble imagining a future for addiction treatment centers without an overhaul of the existing system.

“A couple years ago, I said we can’t continue this for any more than five years, and I still believe that,” Nelson, of Sacred Heart, said.

Toutant, of Great Lakes Recovery Centers, said addiction treatment providers across the state must unite to move away from the current reimbursement model.

“I don’t think there’s been enough voices to rise up in opposition to say to the state of Michigan, … ‘Wake up,’” he said. “The workforce problem will not change unless the financing model changes.”

“We recognize the challenges providers are facing, which is why the state continues to invest in recruitment, retention and provider capacity efforts to strengthen Michigan’s addiction treatment workforce,” DHHS said in a statement.

If provider facilities close, and Michiganders who need addiction treatment are increasingly unable to access it, the state will see “more hospitalizations and deaths,” said Kenneth Hammond Jr., a board member of MAADAC, the Michigan Association for Addiction Professionals. “More individuals will be incarcerated without these services being available to them.”