Despite tough new measures imposed by Ottawa to curb travel abroad during the COVID-19 pandemic, some snowbirds are still flying to U.S. sun destinations.
That’s because they can.
The federal government’s new measures, which were announced last week, include a hotel quarantine stay for air passengers and an agreement with Canada’s major airlines to cancel all flights to the Caribbean and Mexico until May.
However, Ottawa didn’t pull the plug on flights to the United States, so snowbirds still have plenty of flights to choose from that will take them to U.S. sunbelt states.
“People are still interested in heading down there and they’re not scared to do it,” said Jeremy Rood, a pilot with Great Lakes Helicopter in Cambridge, Ont.
Due to the Canada-U.S. land border closure to non-essential traffic, Canadian leisure travellers can only enter the U.S. by air. So Rood’s company flies snowbirds — up to three passengers at a time — by helicopter from Hamilton to Buffalo, N.Y., and transports their cars across the land border.
Upon arrival, passengers pick up their vehicle and drive the rest of the way to their sun destination.
Pilot Jeremy Rood flew his mother, Diane, her dog and his father from Hamilton to Buffalo, N.Y., in October. He also transported their car, so the snowbird couple could have it during their winter in Florida. (Submitted by Jeremy Rood)
After the government announced its new travel rules, Rood said he had a few cancellations, but that business remains brisk. His company is averaging 18 bookings a week for February, he said.
“The bookings have stayed strong and we’ve even been taking on new bookings every day,” he said. “People want to be free and live their life and that’s just what they’re doing.”
Still abiding by the rules
As more contagious COVID-19 variants spread globally, the government introduced its latest round of travel measures to discourage travel abroad.
Along with cancelling flights to Mexico and the Caribbean, the government says it will soon make most air passengers take a COVID-19 test upon arrival in Canada. They will also have to spend up to three days of their 14-day quarantine in a designated hotel, which could cost travellers upwards of $2,000.
Meanwhile, non-essential travellers entering Canada by land will soon have to provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test at the border.
Rood, right, continues to fly snowbirds to the U.S. because Ottawa’s tough new rules curbing travel don’t affect flights to the States. (submitted by Jeremy Rood)
Rood said most of his customers are shipping their cars and plan to drive back to Canada, so they hope to avoid the hotel quarantine rule which currently will only applies to air passengers. However, the government has warned tougher measures for land border travellers could be coming soon.
As for offering helicopter rides across the border during the pandemic, Rood said his company is no different from Canada’s major airlines which still fly to the U.S.
“We’re abiding by all the rules, laws and regulations.”
Transport Canada told CBC News the government didn’t arrange to shut down flights to the U.S. because not all U.S.-bound passengers are leisure travellers.
“It is important to maintain the supply chain as some essential workers and services still have to move across the US border,” said spokesperson Amy Butcher in an email.
She added that Ottawa is in talks with the U.S. to strengthen travel measures at the border.
In response to snowbirds continuing to travel, Butcher said that “it is expected that the vast majority of people will make the responsible choice to postpone their plans.”
Be wary of the risks
Great Lakes Helicopter isn’t the only company still flying snowbirds to the U.S. and shipping their cars.
Quebec’s Transport KMC offers a similar service, but instead of transporting snowbirds by helicopter, it flies them in a nine-seater plane from an airport just outside Montreal to nearby Plattsburgh, N.Y.
KMC told CBC News it’s currently operating two to three sold-out flights a week.
Meanwhile, Toronto-based travel insurance broker Martin Firestone said none of his dozens of snowbird clients who booked trips to U.S. Sunbelt states this month has cancelled their plans.
“What really happened that should have made them cancel?” said Firestone, referring to Ottawa’s new travel rules.
He said his clients hope to avoid the hotel quarantine rule when returning to Canada by either driving home or extending their stay down south until the new measures are lifted.
But Firestone, who is president of Travel Secure Inc., warns that both plans carry risks — on top of those associated with travelling abroad during a raging pandemic.
New federal travel restrictions take effect this week, including mandatory quarantine in a hotel and a temporary suspension on Canadian airline flights to Mexico and the Caribbean, but some experts already say the plan has too many holes to be truly effective. 2:48
Although land border travellers currently don’t face a hotel quarantine, the government could impose harsher rules for them at any time, said Firestone.
“That is an ever-changing situation.”
He also said that snowbirds prolonging their stay could face problems because, typically, Canadians can only spend around six months abroad without facing repercussions, such as losing their provincial health coverage.
So if the government chooses to impose the hotel quarantine rule for a number of months, some snowbirds extending their stay may run out of time.
“You can only be out of the country so many days,” said Firestone. “They have to be wary of that.”
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.
