For more than a year and a half, Canada has kept its doors closed to most non-essential foreign travellers. But that will change on Monday when the federal government opens our border to fully vaccinated Americans.
The government will also loosen several travel restrictions that apply to Canadians returning home from abroad.
Here’s what travellers can expect at the Canadian border, starting Monday.
The Americans are coming
For more than a month, fully vaccinated Canadian travellers have been allowed to skip quarantine when returning home from abroad.
In a continuation of its phased reopening of the border, starting Monday, the government will allow fully vaccinated Americans to both enter Canada and skip the mandatory 14-day quarantine.
But before eager Americans pack their bags, they should make sure they meet all requirements, said Denis Vinette, vice-president of the Canada Border Services Agency’s COVID-19 border task force.
“People need to know what their obligations are,” he said.
The next step of easing border measures begins on August 9. All travellers eligible to enter Canada must enter travel details and proof of vaccination via <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/ArriveCAN?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#ArriveCAN</a>, if they’re fully vaccinated, before entering Canada. <a href=”https://t.co/nTgbEX6CYD”>https://t.co/nTgbEX6CYD</a> <a href=”https://t.co/WKCZaVuegO”>pic.twitter.com/WKCZaVuegO</a>
First, to be considered fully vaccinated, Americans must have received all required doses of a Health Canada-approved COVID-19 vaccine 14 days prior to entering Canada.
Second, only U.S. citizens and permanent residents residing in and travelling from the United States will be permitted entry.
And, just like Canadian travellers, Americans must submit their travel information — including vaccination documents — using the ArriveCAN app or by registering online within 72 hours before their arrival.
Travellers entering Canada on Monday, however, should wait until that day to submit their information, because the government is launching a new version of the app at 12:01 a.m. ET on Monday.
Testing requirements
Although they get to skip quarantine, all fully vaccinated travellers entering Canada must still provide proof of a negative COVID-19 molecular test taken within 72 hours of arrival.
However, come Monday, vaccinated travellers will get to skip the government-administered post-arrival COVID-19 test — unless they’re randomly selected to take it.
“It will be a mandatory random-testing regime,” said Vinette. “This surveillance program will allow us to be able to determine, based on the sampling of a pool size, what are the potential risks … in terms of travellers who’ve been vaccinated who may still be carrying COVID.”
Fully vaccinated travellers entering Canada will be able to skip the mandatory post-arrival COVID-19 test — unless they’re randomly selected to take it. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)
Fully vaccinated travellers who test positive for COVID-19, or who fail to meet Canada’s vaccination requirements, have two choices: They can either quarantine for 14 days or return to the country from which they departed.
“If you drove into Canada, [you can] drive back out of Canada, back into the United States,” Vinette said.
Travelling with children
Canada will also start allowing unvaccinated children under the age of 12 and travelling with fully vaccinated parents to skip quarantine as of Monday.
That rule will come as a relief to some families, because children under 12 currently can’t get vaccinated in either Canada or the U.S.
Unvaccinated children over the age of four will still be required to take a COVID-19 test upon arrival, plus another one eight days later. Both tests will be provided for free by the government.
WATCH | Canada to open border to vaccinated Americans by Aug. 9:
Effective Aug. 9, fully vaccinated Americans can travel to Canada without having to quarantine, rules which may extend to the rest of the world in early September. 2:32
Parents travelling with unvaccinated children are asked to make sure their children take the necessary health precautions, such as avoiding large crowds.
“They can accompany their parent or guardian out of the house to their destination, so long as they avoid group settings like summer camp, school or childcare for 14 days,” federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu said at a news conference last month.
American families travelling with unvaccinated children between the ages of 12 and 17 can still enter Canada, but the children must quarantine for 14 days.
More reopenings in September
The government plans to reopen Canada’s borders to fully vaccinated travellers from all other countries on Sept. 7, but that rule and others may change if Canada gets hit with a serious fourth wave of COVID-19.
This week, Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam announced that the country’s COVID-19 infections are ticking upward. Vaccinated travellers are considered low risk, she said, but the government will continue to monitor the situation.
“We’re taking a precautionary, phased approach to the border reopening,” Tam said Thursday. “If we see any significant concerns, of course, we can adjust accordingly.”
Canadian travellers should also take note that the U.S. side of the Canada-U.S. land border remains closed to non-essential travellers until at least Aug. 21. However, Canadians have been able to fly to the U.S. since the start of the pandemic.
And all unvaccinated travellers entering Canada by air come Monday will no longer have to spend part of their quarantine in a government-designated hotel. However, they still must quarantine for 14 days upon arrival and take all the required COVID-19 tests.
Finally, some provinces have provincial travel rules and restrictions in place, so travellers should check if they need to meet any local requirements when entering Canada.
Since 90 per cent of Canada’s border agents are considered essential workers, they weren’t able to walk off the job. But the workers’ two unions had warned that travellers may experience long lineups at the border due to job action, which could include CBSA agents asking travellers more questions than usual.
On Friday, several land-border crossings had wait times of more than one hour. But now that a tentative deal is on the table, border wait times may return to normal.
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.
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