OTTAWA—Lengthy quarantines could be scrapped as soon as the first week of July for fully vaccinated people who are eligible to travel to Canada, the federal government said Wednesday in announcing its first tentative steps toward rolling back COVID-19 restrictions at the border.
But while citizens, permanent residents and some of their family members, international students and some temporary workers will be able to show proof of their two shots and skip a 14-day lockdown, it’s likely to be some time before a double dose allows the border to open to anyone else.
Even the July rollback itself is not guaranteed, Health Minister Patty Hajdu said Wednesday and will hinge on the pandemic’s spread domestically and abroad, with the government keeping an eye on the pace of vaccinations, but also case counts and hospitalization rates among other factors.
Science — not pressure from the business sector, tourism industry or Canadians writ large — will guide the border reopening process, she said.
“It is better now to be slow and cautious, to use the best science and evidence, to be careful in our approach so that we can have a sustained success rather than rapidly moving and seeing, outbreaks or cases surging in a way that would result in further restrictions having to be applied,” she told a news conference.
For nearly 15 full months, entry to Canada has been highly restricted.
Essential workers have been allowed in, and make up close to 90 per cent of the traffic. They don’t have to quarantine.
Canadian citizens and permanent residents have always had the right to enter the country, whether they’re travelling for essential reasons or not.
But they and a number of other groups the government has allowed in over the last year — including some family members, foreign workers and students — must abide by a series of testing and quarantine requirements when they ente the country.
Currently, they must take a pre-arrival COVID-19 test, a second test upon arrival and a third toward the end of a mandatory 14-day quarantine.
Air travellers are also required to spend up to the first three days of that quarantine in a government-approved hotel.
Under the new rules Hajdu said the government was considering:
travellers would need to be fully vaccinated 14 days or more prior to their arrival in Canada;
they would require a pre-arrival COVID-19 test that must be negative;
they would take a COVID-19 test upon arrival and then would quarantine until that result comes back negative.
Currently, about eight per cent of the Canadian population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, with 70 per cent having had one dose.
The government wants to entice people to get that second dose in part by using travel as an incentive.
“All of these changes are only possible if we continue to protect each other,” Hajdu said.
Those who have been fully vaccinated will be required to prove it, and the only vaccines Canada will accept are those authorized for use here.
How exactly that proof will work is still under discussion between the federal government and the provinces, Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic Leblanc said.
Leblanc said there is consensus on the need for a national standard, but what that could look like is still being worked out.
The Ontario government, which has opposed loosening border restrictions due to the spread of new COVID-19 variants, said it will work on the standard with Ottawa but wants more done to address existing loopholes in the system which it has blamed repeatedly for the province’s third wave.
“The federal government needs to quickly implement an approach to testing and quarantine that is effective, enforced and consistent across all points of arrival, whether land, air or water,” said Stephen Warner, a spokesperson for Solicitor General Sylvia Jones.
The federal government had been hinting for days that it was poised to begin rolling back the travel restrictions.
The current border closure agreement with the U.S. has been the focus of much consternation for many Canadians, as well as the trade, tourism and aviation sectors.
Its latest extension expires on June 21, and pressure is building on both sides of the border to not just extend it outright but make changes, given the pace of vaccinations.
Some 42 per cent of Americans are now fully vaccinated.
But Hajdu said Wednesday there’s no clear timeline on when American tourists or non-essential business travel might be allowed back into Canada.
She said Canada is not alone in trying to figure out a path forward, and that it will tread carefully.
“Some countries have taken very strong stances to open and had to re-close or change, adjust who can travel and when,” she said.
“And what we want to do is take things carefully and cautiously so that we can sustain this recovery for Canadians.”
Last month, the federal government’s expert panel on COVID-19 testing and screening suggested how border restrictions should be handled as vaccinations increase.
Among other things, it recommended the immediate end to the mandatory hotel quarantines, saying the strategy was expensive and potentially ineffective.
Business, aviation and tourism groups — which had been pressing Ottawa for such a plan as soon as vaccinations began in Canada — had seized on the expert panel’s advice as proof the government ought to be able to outline a clear strategy to guide the border reopening.
Many were left sorely disappointed Wednesday.
The Canadian Tourism Roundtable, which includes airlines, hotels, chambers of commerce, live event producers and others, immediately pointed out some of the gaps: the approach announced Wednesday does not address quarantine restrictions for partially vaccinated Canadians and fully vaccinated foreign nationals, and ongoing testing requirements.
“Canadians are doing their part in getting vaccinated; now it is time for the federal government to provide clear, timely, and safe guidance on reopening Canada for travel,” the roundtable said in a statement.