Cross-border shopping reached its apex in the late 1980s when record numbers of consumers sought out U.S. bargains, according to a Statistics Canada study.

The federal agency says that while they recorded an uptick in cross-border shopping in the first nine months of 2007, the increase was minimal in comparison with shopping volumes recorded in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The loonie reached parity with the U.S. currency on Sept. 20 — the first time since November 1976.
(Ryan Remiorz/Canadian Press)

"A relatively small rise in the Canada/U.S. exchange rate in the late 1980s and early 1990s provoked a huge increase in same-day auto trips to the US: Since 2002, the largest appreciation of the exchange rate ever has accompanied a relatively small rise in same-day auto trips," Statistics Canada analyst Francine Roy said in the report.

Roy suggested the relationship between the rise of the loonie and same-day trips across the border has declined notably. The study says this phenomenon is largely tied to heightened border security in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.

For example, between 1986 and 1991, when the value of the Canadian dollar increased 21 per cent, the number of same-day car trips into the U.S. more than doubled. Same-day car trips in the U.S. reached a record-high of 4.9 million per month in 1991. By comparison, in the first nine months of 2007, there were an average of 1.9 million same-day trips monthly.

Meanwhile, cross-border shopping by Americans into Canada plummeted by almost 50 per cent since the loonie began to gain steam in 2003.

The federal agency also notes that while shipments by public- and private-sector couriers have increased by an average of $300 million a year since 1995, growth in 2007 has been below average.

More and more Canadians headed across the border in search of better deals for cars in the first nine months of 2007, according the study that found that the value of vehicle imports by consumers neared $1 billion this year, five times the 2002 value.

But the federal agency noted the dollar amount spent on cars in the U.S. comprises less than two per cent of the vehicles purchased in Canada in the first nine months of 2007.