Pandemic travel restrictions continue to fall like dominos with the Canadian government announcing yesterday that it will “suspend” COVID-19 vaccine mandates for domestic and outbound international travellers effective June 20. However, requirements for foreign nationals coming to Canada will not change.

The announcement will also lift vaccination requirements for federally regulated workers, allowing airline and airport employees on unpaid leave to go back on the job and ease the labour crunch behind long security and customs queues.

Several ministers lauded Canada’s high vaccination rate at a news conference to announce the changes, but Intergovernmental affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc warned the government is prepared to “bring back” necessary policies if there’s a resurgence of the virus in the fall.

Travel industry groups have blamed federal public health measures and mandates for slowdowns at airport customs that have contributed to long waits for passengers and forced flight delays and cancellations and have put increasing pressure on the government to do away with them.

LeBlanc says the decision to drop the federal mandate is not a response to the situation at Canada’s airports but rather is “based on science.”

The Public Health Agency of Canada has reported a steadily declining number of COVID-19 cases, though provinces are no longer providing COVID-19 molecular tests for the general public and federal reporting has become less regimented.

The vaccine mandate will also be lifted for domestic travellers on passenger trains and buses, allowing unvaccinated Canadians to move more freely around the country.

However, travellers will still need to fill out health questions through the ArriveCan app when travelling to Canada, even though the Canadian Airports Council pointed to the added verification as one of the issues causing snarls at customs.

“We’re working on efficiencies to ensure that ArriveCan is less of a source of complaint, however it continues to be a meaningful tool to verify the vaccination status of travellers who are arriving into our borders,” Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said.

He said foreign nationals must still be vaccinated when they come to Canada to protect the country’s health systems. Travellers on federally regulated planes and trains will also still need to wear masks.

While many in the industry expect demand for vacation packages to rise due to the move, others expect that some Canadians may be more reluctant than ever to get on a plane or train, given passengers and workers may never have been vaccinated.

And, the millions of Canadians who remain unvaccinated may not be so eager to travel abroad, since some countries – like Canada – require that foreigners be jabbed to enter, and they would still have to self-isolate upon return to Canada.

“That 14-day quarantine is just not feasible for them,” said ACTA president Wendy Paradis.

Dr. Zain Chagla, an infectious diseases physician at St. Joseph’s hospital in Hamilton, Ont., says vaccine mandates have outworn their purpose and fallen out of step with provincial guidelines that allow mass gatherings at sports and entertainment events.

Chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam has said cabinet should re-evaluate vaccination measures given that vaccines now provide less protection against transmission.

Tuesday’s announcement came after Ottawa paused randomized COVID-19 testing of vaccinated passengers, starting last Saturday through at least June 30, following industry demands to process travellers more quickly.

Canadians’ biggest travel destination remains Canada itself.

“With the summer season in front of us, the ability to travel across Canada is actually very significant for unvaccinated Canadians,” Paradis said.

“We always find that there is a certain amount of the Canadian public who are more safety-conscious, that it does take them longer to be comfortable being travelling. But for the vast majority of Canadians, the easing of these mandates is only good news for them,” she said.