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That money is essential for border towns like Port Huron, its mayor says.

Freighters, the restaurant where she works, is one of the first places people can grab a bite after crossing the US-Canada border between Sarnia, Ontario, and Port Huron, Michigan.

Port Huron is a manufacturing town of less than 30,000 people with a quaint downtown and lots of retail, offering visitors an enticing opportunity for a day-trip.

On Easter weekend - usually one of their busiest of the year, as Canadians take advantage of the break to stop in at a favourite restaurant and go to a church service in Port Huron - cars were few and far between and sales were not what they should have been, she says.

She, for example, has a mailbox at a shipping facility in Port Huron that she visits regularly, as do her neighbours.