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Travel restrictions and Omicron: What’s changing in Canada, U.S. – Globalnews.ca

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The United States on Thursday became the latest country to announce travel requirement changes in an effort to curb the spread of the new Omicron COVID-19 variant — which will affect Canadian travellers.

The changes, announced by President Joe Biden, include a new testing requirement for travellers flying into the U.S.

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The move comes days after a handful of countries, including Canada, quickly clamped down on travel and imposed bans on African countries, as fears around the new variant of concern grew.

Here are the latest travel rules imposed by both the U.S. and Canada.

U.S. travel changes

Biden’s announcement Thursday includes a requirement for all air travellers entering the U.S. — including those from Canada — to be tested for COVID-19 within 24 hours of boarding their flight, regardless of their vaccination status.

Previously, people who were fully vaccinated would have been able to present a negative test taken with 72 hours of boarding a flight to the U.S.

Read more:

Feds, provinces considering expanding COVID-19 tests for U.S. travellers amid Omicron

“It doesn’t include shutdowns or lockdowns, but widespread vaccinations and boosters and testing and a lot more,” said Biden.

The president however made no mention of any changes to current land border travel requirements between Canada and the U.S.

The new rules come less than a month since the U.S. first opened its land border to fully vaccinated Canadians. In mid-November, the Canadian government also waived PCR testing requirements for Canadians returning from the U.S. for any trip less than 72 hours.


Click to play video: 'WHO asks for more doses to be sent to poorer nations amid global vaccine inequities'



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WHO asks for more doses to be sent to poorer nations amid global vaccine inequities


WHO asks for more doses to be sent to poorer nations amid global vaccine inequities

A background briefing released by the White House ahead of Biden’s announcement also outlined other components of the new U.S. strategy against COVID-19.

The U.S. plans to expand access to booster shots and accelerate access to vaccines to kids under the age of five. It also plans to create new rapid response teams to combat the spread of Omicron outbreaks, and to ship 200 million more vaccine doses abroad within the next 100 days.

Last week, the U.S. also announced travel bans of its own on several countries, including South Africa, where the virus was first detected.

Canadian travel changes

Canada was quick to announce a wide array of new travel restrictions following the discovery of Omicron.

The federal government on Tuesday banned entry to foreign travellers who have been to Nigeria, Malawi and Egypt in the last two weeks — adding to the list of African countries facing travel bans, like South Africa, Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho and Eswatini, that were first announced on Nov. 26.

Canadians and permanent residents —  who have the right to return to Canada — who have travelled through any of the listed countries in the past two weeks will still be allowed to return, though they must be tested at the airport and would have to quarantine while awaiting their test results.

According to Transport Minister Omar Alghabra, the COVID-19 testing requirement for those returning to Canada would still apply even to those who are fully vaccinated, and any tests administered in the 10 listed countries would not be accepted.

Read more:

Omicron variant: Canada expands travel ban, seeks booster guidance

Federal ministers also announced new additions to the testing requirement Tuesday, adding that anyone now coming into Canada from a country aside from the United States would have to be tested on arrival and must isolate and await their results.

Alghabra and Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said Wednesday that expanding those testing requirements to American travellers was still not out of the question, though not all Canadian airports would have the capacity to begin such testing for arriving air travellers.

“The speed of implementation will also vary in local airport conditions,” he said. “There are airports in Canada which can start doing that really quickly because there is excess capacity. Other airports will take a bit more time.”


Click to play video: 'Confusion, frustration grow over Canada’s new travel rules as Omicron variant spreads'



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Confusion, frustration grow over Canada’s new travel rules as Omicron variant spreads


Confusion, frustration grow over Canada’s new travel rules as Omicron variant spreads

That on-arrival test would be paid for by the federal government, though the pre-departure test must still be taken before arriving in Canada, Duclos said. Unvaccinated travellers would remain the same, however, with a requirement for a 14 day quarantine, and a need to get tested upon arrival and again on day eight of their quarantine.

Duclos said that the testing requirement was set to come into effect in the “next few days,” and that he expects more than 30,000 tests to be administered at Canadian airports every day.

Industry groups have since warned that Canada’s latest testing plan could cause “chaos” at airports across the country.

Daniel Gooch, president of the Canadian Airports Council, told The Canadian Press that airports would not be able to test overseas arrivals without long waiting times.


Click to play video: 'How Omircron might ground your holiday travel plans'



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How Omircron might ground your holiday travel plans


How Omircron might ground your holiday travel plans

“Do we really want people waiting for hours for a test in a customs hall?” he told the Press on Wednesday.

“We want to avoid chaos. And we want to ensure that travelers who have booked trips are comfortable to travel.”

So far, a total of nine cases of Omicron have been found in Canada since Ontario’s announcement of its first two cases Sunday. Alberta was the most recent province to announce new cases of the variant, with two more reported on Wednesday.

Read more:

Omicron variant: Canada expands travel ban, seeks booster guidance

The U.S., on the other hand, announced Wednesday it had detected its first case of the variant in California, while at least 20 other countries — including the U.K., Denmark, Australia and Israel — have since reported Omicron infections after South African scientists identified the variant last week.

Cases of COVID-19 in South Africa reportedly doubled on Wednesday to more than 8,500, while the country’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases said that the variant had now overtaken the Delta variant among the samples it was analyzing.

Experts uncertain about travel bans

Public health officials and experts have warned against the rush to slap travel bans and restrictions amid Omicron’s spread.

Preliminary data from South Africa suggests Omicron could potentially be more transmissible and have a higher chance to cause re-infection in individuals.

Experts were quick to point out several things, however, including a lack of definitive evidence that the variant was deadlier than the current dominant strain of COVID-19 and the low vaccination rates in South Africa.

While many cautioned there is a lack of data surrounding the variant of concern, countries were quick to close their borders to African nations — prompting a harsh backlash from the World Health Organization and other public health experts.


Click to play video: 'WHO director-general says travel bans don’t work, punishes countries for ‘doing the right thing’'



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WHO director-general says travel bans don’t work, punishes countries for ‘doing the right thing’


WHO director-general says travel bans don’t work, punishes countries for ‘doing the right thing’

The WHO this week warned countries to not impose travel bans and called on them to follow science and international health regulations.

Read more:

WHO slams southern Africa travel bans spurred by Omicron variant scare

Experts have pointed to travel bans as now being ineffective at this stage as the Omicron variant would have most likely spread beyond the borders of the targeted countries.

“Unfortunately for this Omicron variant, it’s too late at this stage, I think. It’s already here,” said Julianne Piper, a research fellow and project coordinator with the Pandemics and Borders research project at Simon Fraser University, in an interview with Global News earlier this week.

— with files from The Canadian Press, Reuters and Global News’ Saba Aziz and Leslie Young

© 2021 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

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Alberta's population surges by record-setting 202,000 people: Here's where they all came from – CBC.ca

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Alberta smashed population-growth records in the past year, mainly due to people moving to the province from across Canada and around the world.

The province’s population surged to just over 4.8 million as of Jan. 1, according to new estimates released Wednesday by Statistics Canada.

That’s an increase of 202,324 residents compared with a year earlier, which marks — by far — the largest annual increase on record.

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Alberta also broke a national record in 2023 for interprovincial migration, with a net gain of 55,107 people.

“This was the largest gain in interprovincial migration nationally since comparable data became available in 1972,” Statistics Canada said in a release.


Most of the interprovincial migrants came from Ontario and British Columbia.

Statistics Canada estimates that 38,236 Ontarians moved to Alberta last year, versus 14,860 Albertans who moved to Ontario, for a net gain of 23,376 people.

Similarly, an estimated 37,650 British Columbians moved to Alberta, compared to 22,400 Albertans who moved to B.C., for a net gain of 15,250.


All told, interprovincial migration accounted for 27 per cent of Alberta’s population growth over the past year.

That put it just ahead of permanent immigration, which accounted for 26 per cent, and well ahead of natural population increase (more births than deaths), which accounted for eight per cent.

The largest component, however, was temporary international migration.

Non-permanent residents from other countries accounted for 39 per cent of the province’s population growth in the past year, reflecting a national trend.


Canada’s population reached 40,769,890 on Jan. 1, according to Statistics Canada estimates, which is up 3.2 per cent from a year ago.

“Most of Canada’s 3.2-per-cent population growth rate stemmed from temporary immigration in 2023,” Statistics Canada noted.

“Without temporary immigration, that is, relying solely on permanent immigration and natural increase (births minus deaths), Canada’s population growth would have been almost three times less (1.2 per cent).”

Alberta’s population, meanwhile, grew by 4.4 per cent year-over-year.

Alberta now represents 11.8 per cent of the country’s population, its largest proportion on record. 

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Why Canada's record population growth is helping – and hurting – the economy – CTV News

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Canada has recorded the fastest population growth in 66 years, increasing by 1.3 million people, or 3.2 per cent, in 2023, according to a new report from Statistics Canada.

The country has not seen such growth since 1957, when the spike was attributed to the baby boom and an influx of immigrants fleeing Hungary.

The vast majority of Canada’s growth last year was due to immigration, with temporary residents — which includes foreign workers and international students — making up the largest proportion of newcomers.

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“We need people coming to Canada to help with our economy,” says Matti Siemiatycki, a professor of planning at the University of Toronto. “There are many jobs and professions where there are vacancies, and that is having an impact, whether in the healthcare sector or trades and construction sector.”

Siemiatycki adds immigrants also bring “ingenuity… resources… and culture” to Canada.

Newcomers are relied on to help keep pace with Canada’s aging population and declining fertility rates, but the influx also presents a challenge for a country struggling to build the homes and infrastructure needed for immigrants.

“It’s an incredibly large shock for the economic system to absorb because of just the sheer number of people coming into the country in a short period of time,” says Robert Kavcic. a senior economist and director with BMO Capital Markets.

“The reality is population can grow extremely fast, but the supply side of the economy like housing and service infrastructure, think health care and schools, can only catch up at a really gradual pace,” Kavcic says. “So there is a mismatch right now.”

The impact of that mismatch can most acutely be seen in the cost of rent, services and housing.

In December, Kavcic wrote in a note that Canada needs to build 170,000 new housing units every three months to keep up with population growth, noting the industry is struggling to complete 220,000 units in a full year.

To address this, Ottawa has announced plans to cap the number of new temporary residents while also reducing the number of international student visas, a move economists say could offer some relief when it comes to housing and the cost of living.

“The arithmetic on the caps actual works relatively well because it would take us back down to 1 per cent population growth which we have been used to over the last decade and which is more or less absorbable by the economy,” Kavcic says. “The question is whether or not we see policy makers follow through and hit those numbers.”

Economists believe these changes could help ease inflationary pressures and may make a Bank of Canada rate cut more likely, but could also lead to slower GDP growth.

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Canada’s population hits 41M months after breaking 40M threshold – Global News

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Nine months after reaching a population of 40 million, Canada has cracked a new threshold.

As of Wednesday morning, it’s estimated 41 million people now call the country home, according to Statistics Canada’s live population tracker.

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The speed at which Canada’s population is growing was also reflected in new data released Wednesday by the federal agency: between Jan. 1 2023 and Jan. 1 2024, Canada added 1,271,872 inhabitants, a 3.2 per cent growth rate — the highest since 1957.

Most of Canada’s 3.2 per cent population growth rate stemmed from temporary immigration. Without it, Canada’s population growth would have been 1.2 per cent, Statistics Canada said.


Click to play video: 'Business News: Job growth fails to keep pace with population'

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Business News: Job growth fails to keep pace with population


From Oct. 1 to Dec. 31, 2023, Canada’s population increased by 241,494 people (0.6 per cent), the highest rate of growth in a fourth quarter since 1956.

Usha George, a professor at the Toronto Metropolitan Centre for Immigration and Settlement at Toronto Metropolitan University, told Global News in June a booming population can benefit the economy.

“It is not the bodies we are bringing in; these are bodies that fill in the empty spaces in the labour market,” she said.

“They bring a very-high level of skills.”


Click to play video: 'Canadian millennials surpass baby boomers as dominant generation: StatCan'

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Canadian millennials surpass baby boomers as dominant generation: StatCan


However, Ottawa has recently sought to ease the flow of temporary immigration in a bid to ease cost-of-living woes.


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Immigration Minister Marc Miller said on March 21 Ottawa would set targets for temporary residents allowed into Canada to ensure “sustainable” growth in the number of temporary residents entering the nation.

The next day, BMO economist Robert Kavcic in a note to clients the new limits will have a positive impact on Canada’s rental market and overall housing crisis.

“We’ve been firm in our argument that Canada has had an excess demand problem in housing, and this is maybe the clearest example,” Kavcic said.

“Non-permanent resident inflows, on net, have swelled to about 800K in the latest year, with few checks and balances in place, putting tremendous stress on housing supply and infrastructure.”

Alberta gains, Ontario loses: A look at Canadian migration in 2023

If Alberta is truly calling, then it appears more Canadians are choosing to answer.

Putting the pun on the provincial government’s attraction campaign aside, Canada’s wild rose country saw the largest net gain in interprovincial migration in 2023, Statistics Canada said in Wednesday’s report.


Click to play video: 'Is Alberta ready for population growth?'

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Is Alberta ready for population growth?


The agency said 55,107 Canadians moved to Alberta last year, which was the largest gain in interprovincial migration nationally since comparable data become available in 1972.

“Alberta has been recording gains in population from interprovincial migration since 2022, a reverse of the trend seen from 2016 to 2021, when more people left the province than arrived from other parts of Canada,” Statistics Canada said.

“Approximately 333,000 Canadians moved from one province or territory to another in 2023, the second-highest number recorded since the 1990s and the third straight year that interprovincial migration topped 300,000.”

Meanwhile, British Columbia had 8,624 more residents move out than in in 2023, meaning net interprovincial migration was negative for the first time since 2012, Statistics Canada said.

In general, the largest migration flows for British Columbia and Alberta are with each other, and most of the net loss from British Columbia in 2023 was to Alberta, it added.


Click to play video: '‘Enormous pressure’ expected in Ontario home care due to high growth of senior population'

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‘Enormous pressure’ expected in Ontario home care due to high growth of senior population


It also seems that good things may no longer be growing in Ontario; Canada’s most populous province lost 36,197 people to other regions in 2023, the biggest regional loss in 2023, Statistics Canada said.

That followed a loss of 38,816 people in 2022; the only other times a province has lost more than 35,000 people due to migration to other parts of Canada occurred in Quebec in 1977 and 1978.

Alberta aside, net interprovincial migration was also up in Nova Scotia (+6,169 people), New Brunswick (+4,790) and Prince Edward Island (+818), although all three Maritime provinces gained fewer interprovincial migrants in 2023 than in the two previous years, Statistics Canada said.

— with files from Uday Rana and Sean Previl

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&copy 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

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