Canadian RV dealers say they are concerned about the threat of tariffs on their industry, but are cautiously optimistic that travellers may have a renewed interest in exploring Canada in a recreational vehicle.
The vast majority of RVs in Canada are produced in the U.S., mostly in and around Elkhart, Ind.
So far, the vehicles have been spared from the United States’s 25 per cent auto tariffs and Canada’s equivalent retaliatory ones, says Shane Devenish, the president of the Canadian Recreational Vehicle Association. But, he says, dealers have been stockpiling units just in case.
“[We’ve] certainly got our fingers crossed that we won’t be hit.… It would tremendously affect our industry with these tariffs, if they come on,” Devenish told Shelley Joyce, host of CBC’s Daybreak Kamloops.
Devenish says he wishes more RVs were manufactured in Canada, but the answer is not that simple.
“It’s a competitive advantage that the U.S. has,” he said. “Elkhart is what’s called the RV capital of the world. They have a workforce, they have a supply chain. They have the manufacturers right within about a 150-mile radius.”
Allison Blouin of Fraserway RV in Kamloops, B.C., agrees that the future is unclear. She notes that RVs in the U.S. and Canada use Canadian lumber and some Canadian steel, meaning U.S. manufacturers could be impacted too.
“I don’t know exactly where the price points will end up,” she said.
Blouin adds that there is optimism in the industry as they’ve seen a rise in interest from Canadians looking to travel within their own country amid a trade war.
“The RV industry, I think, is going to be a beneficiary of that,” she said.
“Our backyard is massive. We are anticipating people wanting to spend their money at home and wanting to support local communities, local businesses.”
Blouin says her company, which also rents RVs, is doing a lot of business with travellers from Europe and the U.S.
Devenish says he’s hearing from Canadian RV owners who are looking to travel further afield in Canada.
“I was at a Moncton [N.B.] RV show a couple weeks ago and more people were talking to me about taking those longer trips that they haven’t taken in the past,” he said. “People want to enjoy Canada and take the RVs right across the country.”
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There has been an uptick in Canadians choosing to stay local for their vacations in recent months.
Karl Willms, 80, is a Kamloops artist who’s travelled the world with his wife and sketchbook — but he’s never taken a road trip across Canada before.
That’s now something the graphic novelist and sketch artist plans to do, instead of his usual trip involving six months in Mexico after a circuitous trip of the southwest U.S.
“We’re just planning to go across Canada, because of the situation down south, we decided to patronize our own country,” he said.
Willlms says he plans to stay as far south in Canada as he can with his RV, nicknamed “White Fang.”
“If it’s gravel roads that’s fine,” the artist said. “I’m very interested in small town Canada.
“The Prairie towns I love are towns with a Main Street, a Chinese restaurant, bank and pharmacy, you know, basically. And there’s still lots of those towns around.”
