It’s a start. Vaccinated travellers will no longer need a molecular COVID-19 test to enter Canada starting Feb. 28 and the government plans to drop its blanket advisory against non-essential travel; however, travel players contend that measures not taken were a “missed opportunity” to bring the industry closer to where it “needs to be.”
The good news is that costly, inconvenient (and as some argue, ineffective) PCR tests have been scrapped for fully vaccinated international arrivals effective March 1. The bad news is that travellers will still be required to produce a negative antigen test result (taken the day before travel commences).
The Canadian Travel and Tourism Roundtable, a cross-Canadian coalition of over 30 leaders in the tourism and travel sector, said it welcomes the government’s move away from mandatory pre-departure and on-arrival PCR tests, and to remove the advisory against non-essential travel, but adds it missed an opportunity to align with other international jurisdictions that have fully removed pre-departure test requirements for vaccinated travellers.
“With these changes, the travel and tourism sector continues to be the only industry subject to mandatory testing, despite being safer than everyday activities,” said the Roundtable.
More manageable than PCR tests, antigen tests, which must be administered by a laboratory or health care entity (no home tests), are still an additional cost and often difficult for travellers to procure, said ACTA president Wendy Paradis, who added, “While ACTA welcomes this change as an important step forward, we urge the government to lift all pre-departure testing requirements for fully vaccinated travellers… All testing requirements create uncertainty and deter travel. There is no scientific basis to single-out travel for testing.”
But, she added, overall, “today’s changes are important milestones for travel agencies and independent travel agents.”
Transport Minister Omar Alghabra called the changes nothing less than a “a great day for the Canadian travel industry.”
So, what’s changed?
• Unvaccinated children travelling with vaccinated adults who come to Canada will no longer have to isolate from school or daycare for 14 days.
• Some fully vaccinated travellers might still be randomly selected for a molecular test at the airport, but they will not be required to quarantine while they wait for the result.
• After Feb. 28, all airports designated to receive international flights will be able to do so. These include Windsor, London, Fort McMurray, and Moncton.
• Importantly, by downgrading its Public Health Notice from level 3 to level 2, the government will lift its advisory urging Canadians to avoid all non-essential travel outside the country due to the risk of the omicron variant of COVID-19.
What hasn’t
• Despite the new measures, all travellers, regardless of how long they were away from Canada, will continue to be required to submit their mandatory information via the ArriveCAN mobile app or website, including proof of vaccination in English or French and a quarantine plan prior to arriving in Canada.
• Unvaccinated foreign travellers (who are not exempted) are still barred entry, while unvaccinated Canadians will need to be tested at the airport and again eight days after arrival and isolate for 14 days.
• To prove a previous COVID-19 infection, only a molecular test result, taken at least 10 calendar days and no more than 180 calendar days before entering Canada, will be accepted.
Acknowledging that the COVID-19 situation in Canada has improved, Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said the government will consider easing restrictions further in coming weeks if the epidemiological situation continues to improve, hospitalizations continue to diminish, and Canadian Canadians continue to get their booster shots.
He further promised that more information about how COVID-19 testing will work for cruise ships travellers arriving at Canadian ports would be forthcoming, in time for cruise ship season.
Duclos said the government has adjusted COVID-19 border measures because Canada has more tools to transition away from stiff restrictions. “These tools include the strong surveillance system, a highly vaccinated population, continued access to vaccines, access to therapeutics both in and outside our hospital system, and increasing access to rapid tests,” he said.
The two-week delay before the new rules take effect, he admitted, are largely to allow the technology, including the ArriveCan app, to catch up.
Touting Canada’s tourism industry as “a leader around the world in ensuring the safety of travellers while weathering one of the most challenging economic crises,” Tourism Minister Randy Boissonnault said the government is “committed to a safe reopening – one that provides predictability, flexibility, and shows the world that Canada is one of the safest places to travel.”
He added, “Let me be clear that the Canadian economy will not fully recover until our tourism sector recovers and today’s measures will help us safely welcome visitors to Canada.”
It’s news that can’t come quick enough for most in the industry, including WestJet, whose executive VP Angela Avery stated, “As measures transition and Canada’s pandemic situation continues to improve, we are optimistic that the remaining policies will be reassessed and removed for fully vaccinated travellers in the weeks ahead.”
Tammy Moore, an executive at Unifor, which represents 12,500 members in Canada’s aviation industry, agreed. “Airline workers have been working tirelessly throughout the pandemic, and today’s announcement is welcome relief for all workers in the airline sector,” she said, adding, “We have long been asking for a plan to get the industry back up and running safely and at full capacity.”
And that plan, such as it is, has arrived.