The southbound lanes on the road to North America’s post-pandemic recovery finally reopen today as the United States ends nearly 20 months of controversial COVID-19 exile and allows fully vaccinated travellers to cross the Canada-US land border. (Wondering about the traffic? Watch the live cam at the Peace Bridge crossing).
As of midnight November 08, non-essential traffic will resume moving in both directions for the first time since March 2020, when both countries imposed sweeping but selective restrictions in hopes of slowing the spread of the virus – the first widespread border closure since the 9/11 terrorist attacks 20 years ago.
Will there be an immediate run on the border? Here’s a live cam of the Peace Bridge crossing between Ontario and New York State – you can see for yourself…
Not all problems solved
As pleased as people are by the reopening, there are still problems with the border that need to be addressed.
“We’re on the other side of this, hopefully, but if the border were to ever close again, they really need to realize that families are essential,” said Kim Patchett, who lives with her husband Barry in Saugeen Shores, Ont., west of Owen Sound on the shores of Lake Huron.
Travelling to Philadelphia to visit daughter Kaity, her American son-in-law Jesse and three-year-old granddaughter Ilsa – a routine endeavour in the before times, costing just $80 for a tank of diesel fuel – has been an expensive and frustrating ordeal since the restrictions were imposed.
The couple made the trip twice, including once by air last Christmas, and then again in September for Ilsa’s third birthday. For that trip, they hired a helicopter to cross the border and a car-carrier service to deliver their SUV to American soil before driving the rest of the way.
PCR Testing
Then there’s the Canadian requirement that all travellers submit the results of a recent PCR test to prove they aren’t sick, an expense that in Canada can run anywhere from $150-$300 per person.
All told, Patchett figures they’ve spent $6,000 on trips that would normally only have set them back $320.
Policy needs re-examining
The notion that a Canadian can test for COVID-19 in Canada, travel to the US for less than 72 hours, then use their Canadian test result to re-enter the country is just one factor that has this country’s chief public health officer admitting that the policy needs to be re-examined.
Dr. Theresa Tam says the current testing protocols are being “actively looked at,” particularly for short trips, as the southbound US land border re-opens to non-essential travellers today (Nov. 8).
On Friday the Canadian Border Services Agency reiterated the testing requirements for vaccinated travellers entering Canada, but Tam stated, “Just to reassure everybody, we are looking at that quite carefully.”
The COVID-19 border measures are governed by an order-in-council that is set to expire on Nov. 21, so Canadian officials will need to decide whether to renew, change, or do away with them altogether.
Currently, anyone crossing into Canada needs to provide a recent molecular test that shows a negative result for COVID-19. At a cost of $150 to $300 per test, that can be a pricey proposition, particularly for families
Not a sensible rationale
Critics have been especially frustrated with the policy for short trips across the US border, which allows travellers to get tested in Canada before spending up to 72 hours in US and then presenting their negative Canadian test to re-enter the country.
“I’m not sure I understand the rationale for testing travellers who are going to the US for a very short trip,” said Dr. Irfan Dhalla, co-chair of a federal advisory panel on COVID-19 testing and screening. “Even if we were going to require tests from these travellers, a test taken in Canada, before the trip even starts, would not be helpful.”
If the concern is that the traveller might become infected in the United States, it would make more sense to take a test a few days after returning to Canada, given the incubation period of the virus, he said.
The policy was initially intended to reduce transmission on either side of the border and save people in border communities from having to take a test in the US during a short jaunt, according to Tam. “But I do think that all this needs to be re-examined, as we are doing with all of the border measures moving ahead,” she said.
A roundtable of tourism and travel advocates panned the test requirements for cross-border travel and said the policy for short trips “makes no sense.”
“What would that tell you about what the individual had done while they were away and whether or not they posed a threat?” pondered Perrin Beatty, president of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, who spoke on behalf of the roundtable Thursday. “It would simply drive up costs for people travelling without providing any added security at all for Canadians.”
Some public health experts have defended the policy, though they acknowledge a test done in Canada won’t tell border officials anything about what they were exposed to a day or two later.
“You do not want them to come to a Canadian border and potentially expose important front-line staff,” said Susan Bondy, associate professor with the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto.
It seems crazy
The test also makes for better consistency at the border without forcing Canadians to get tested in the United States during their short visit, said Dr. Kwame McKenzie, CEO of the Wellesley Institute, who also served on the federal government’s testing advisory panel.
“It seems crazy,” he acknowledged, “but they’re trying to line up the fact that you need to test to get into Canada. It’s not as crazy as it seems.”
As for the test requirements for vaccinated travellers in general, McKenzie said Canada’s safety standards for travellers are higher than some other countries. “That is a reason why Canada has one of the lower infection rates and death rates per million population,” he said.
There is no doubt that the tests do prevent some COVID-19-positive people from crossing the border, but the question is how many.
Deputy public health officer Dr. Howard Njoo said even some of those who have entered Canada under the current rules have tested positive after crossing into the country. The latest figures from public health show that applies to about 0.18% of vaccinated travellers.
“It may seem like a very low percentage, but if the number of travellers coming back into Canada increases, the absolute number of travellers who are coming in and who are infected with COVID-19 could end up being a significant number,” he said.
It’s difficult to know how many people have had to cancel their plans because they’ve tested positive because there is no way to track them.
Tam warned that though the fourth wave is bending in the right direction, Canada is still vulnerable to another surge.
At the end of the day, it comes down to risk tolerance, said Bondy, and how much risk reduction Canadians feel is necessary. “That’s the nature of public health, is to wrestle with those thorny issues,” she said.