The federal government announced Friday it will suspend the mandatory randomized arrival testing for incoming travellers at Canada’s airports, a move that comes as the U.S. signals it will ease up on some testing requirements.
As a result, starting Saturday, June 11, only unvaccinated travellers will be required to take a test upon entry into Canada.
Up to now, fully vaccinated travellers were being subjected to random COVID-19 testing upon arrival.
The policy change is being billed as a “pause” because random arrival testing will be suspended between Saturday and June 30 — and the government plans to bring it back on July 1.
“It is important to note that [randomized testing] will be reinstated as this is the only way we have of detecting new variants coming into the country, given that provinces and territories are no longer doing any PCR testing,” Marie-France Proulx, a spokesperson for Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos, told CBC News.
While the random arrival testing eventually will return, the government announced that, starting next month, arrival testing for unvaccinated travellers will be moved off-site — meaning those travellers will no longer be forced to give a sample for a test at the airport.
This change will mean airports can dismantle dedicated testing sites that have taken up space in the customs halls.
Canada is one of the few Western countries that still has some form of arrival testing at this late stage of the pandemic.
Critics, including a number of public health experts, have said that this sort of testing regime is unnecessary now that there is widespread natural and vaccine-induced immunity to the virus. They’ve called the policy a bureaucratic burden that was adding to already lengthy delays at airports, which are grappling with clogged customs facilities.
The government has defended the arrival testing program as a way to track how many COVID-19 cases are slipping into the country. They’ve also said the program could be used to detect new virus variants of concern.
The U.S., which has never had arrival testing, announced Friday it will drop its pre-entry testing requirement for air travel. As of Sunday, U.S.-bound passengers won’t have to get a test before boarding a flight.
Some of Canada’s airports, most notably Toronto’s Pearson International, have been plagued by hours-long delays in recent weeks. The federal government has been criticized for its handling of the often chaotic situation, which has left passengers stranded and staff stressed.
People wait at the arrivals section of Terminal 1 of Toronto Pearson International Airport on Thursday, June 9, 2022. (Esteban Cuevas/CBC)
The Greater Toronto Airport Authority (GTAA), the organization that runs Pearson, has long urged the government to drop random arrival testing because the program causes delays.
GTAA also has said the already dire customs situation is likely to only get worse because the number of international flights arriving at that airport will increase by some 50 per cent in the coming days as airlines ramp up their summer schedules.
“The government of Canada recognizes the impact that significant wait times at some Canadian airports are having on travellers. We continue to work with airports, airlines, baggage handlers, and other partners to implement solutions to reduce delays as we approach the summer peak season,” Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said in a statement announcing the arrival test changes.
Transport Minister Omar Alghabra says his government has taken steps to address delays at airports. (Patrick Doyle/The Canadian Press)
Alghabra said the government has already hired an additional 800 Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA) screening officers to help process the large volume of passengers transiting through airport security during the busy travel season.
To address the persistent backlog at customs, the government is adding more Canada Border Services Agency kiosks to Pearson’s customs hall, Alghabra said.
The Opposition Conservatives have repeatedly urged the government to drop all testing requirements and end vaccine mandates, which force travellers to show proof of vaccination.
While the arrival testing program will be suspended, vaccine requirements remain.
All travellers will still be required to show that they’ve had their two shots — or one, in the case of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine — before boarding a plane.
The government is also maintaining the vaccine mandate for transport workers and other federal employees — a policy which has been blamed for staff shortages among security, airport and airline workers.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
