OTTAWA —
The federal government is easing the current cross-border travel policies on family reunification, expanding who will be allowed into Canada while also adding new COVID-19 public health screening measures for travellers entering the country.
While the Canadian border is set to remain closed for another month at least to all non-essential travel, changes are coming to allow more extended family members into Canada on compassionate grounds, as well as allowing international students to enter the country under certain criteria.
As of Oct. 8, extended family members of Canadian citizens and Canadian permanent residents, including those in an exclusive dating relationship of at least one year and their dependent children, as well as adult children, grandchildren, siblings and grandparents can come to Canada. So can non-relative foreign nationals under compassionate reasons in specific circumstances, such as a close friend experiencing a life-threatening illness, critical injury or death, with the potential for limited release from quarantine to visit the injured or dying loved one.
Starting Oct. 20, international students who are attending a learning institution that has a COVID-19 readiness plan in place, will also be able to enter Canada.
The federal government says more detailed information about who can qualify for the new entry allowance will be available on the government’s website next week, but it will include each traveller needing to apply for and be issued a travel authorization before coming to Canada.
Travellers entering Canada will still need to quarantine for 14 days upon arrival, and plan to stay in the country for at least 15 days.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister Marco Mendicino, Public Safety Minister Bill Blair and Health Minister Patty Hajdu are making the announcement about updated border measures and travel regulations.
Asked about the incoming policy change ahead of the announcement, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the federal government will keep Canadians safe while allowing more compassionate cases of family reunification, without getting into specifics.
“From the very beginning, our priority has been quite simple: Making sure that Canadians are protected from COVID-19 and that has meant taking strong actions at the border and continually looking how we can improve our actions to prevent importation of COVID-19,” Trudeau said.
He went on to say that community transmission is the biggest driver of new cases, whereas the importation of cases from outside of Canada is a “tiny fraction” of the source of the virus’ spread.
“What we’re doing is working and we need to continue it, however, we can always look at ways to improve our measures while keeping Canadians safe and to do a better job of understanding the heart-wrenching stories of families divided, of compassionate cases that should be given flexibility, that wouldn’t endanger Canadian safety,” Trudeau said.
As of June 9, foreign nationals who are immediate family members of either Canadian citizens or permanent residents were permitted to enter Canada to be reunited, under a limited exemption to the current border restrictions. This has allowed both foreign and cross-border Canada-U.S. families to reunite under certain stipulations, including parents, spouses, common-law partners, dependent children and their children.
However, many other families remained separated by the border restrictions including non-married couples. People in that predicament have been putting considerable political and public pressure on politicians and policymakers to further ease up on the rules.
