Confused about Ottawa’s strict new rules designed to discourage travel during the COVID-19 pandemic?
You’re not alone.
After the federal government announced the new travel measures on Jan. 29, CBC News was flooded with emails from Canadians wanting to know more — including how Ottawa came up with a $2,000 hotel quarantine bill.
So far, the government has offered only broad details about the new rules, but it promises to provide more information in the coming days.
Here’s what we know now.
Air passenger rules explained
Some of the government’s new travel measures are already in place. On Jan. 31, Canada’s major airlines — in an agreement with Ottawa — cancelled all flights to Mexico and the Caribbean until April 30.
Several American airlines still fly from Canada to those destinations, but passengers will encounter at least one U.S. stopover along the way.
Canada’s airlines are still flying to the United States, because essential workers need to travel between Canada and the U.S. during the pandemic, Transport Canada told CBC News on Thursday.
Canada-bound passengers must provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test before boarding their flight, and all flights entering the country are now being funnelled into four major airports in Montreal, Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver.
According to the government, most air passengers entering Canada will soon be required to take another COVID-19 test upon arrival and wait for the results — up to three days — in a designated hotel. Passengers who test negative can leave and finish the rest of their 14-day quarantine at home.
Those with positive test results will be required to stay at a designated government facility.
What about the cost?
Passengers will be billed for their hotel stay, and Ottawa has suggested the cost could be about $2,000. It’s unclear if two people sharing a room would have to pay double that amount.
Many people have questioned how a three-day stay in a hotel could total $2,000. The government says the amount would also cover related expenses, such as the cost of the test, transportation, hotel security and added health protections for hotel staff. Presumably, meals would be included as well.
“It’s not just simply the cost of a hotel room,” Public Safety Minister Bill Blair said on Jan. 29.
He said travellers shouldn’t balk at the price tag.
“We think that if they’re going to make that choice [to travel], that they should bear the full cost and responsibility of all the measures that are necessary to keep Canadians safe.”
Any exceptions to the rule?
The government has said that there will be “limited exceptions” to the hotel quarantine requirement, but it hasn’t yet laid out who will be exempt. At a news conference on Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suggested that there could be some wiggle room for extreme cases.
“Obviously, there may be particular compassionate or humanitarian exceptions that must be made in given situations, and we’ll look at those,” he said.
WATCH | Do new COVID-19 travel restrictions go far enough?:
Infectious disease physicians answer questions about the COVID-19 pandemic, including whether Canada’s new travel restrictions go far enough and what’s been learned about variants. 5:41
Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, said on Friday that it’s unclear if vaccinated people can still get the virus without developing symptoms and then infect others.
“The scientific principle underpinning the application of vaccines for international travel cannot be made at this time, because we do not know if the vaccines reduce transmission,” she told CBC News.
But on Feb. 2, Trudeau indicated that it could be weeks before the hotel quarantine requirement takes effect.
“We hope to have that implemented within the month — weeks to come,” he said in French at a news conference. “People are working very hard to create a system so that it is established before people start travelling for the March break.”
What happens if I refuse to comply?
In a news release announcing the new travel measures, the government also laid out the fines for breaking the country’s quarantine requirement. Violators could face serious penalties, including six months in jail and/or up to $750,000 in fines.
What about the land border?
Because the Canada-U.S. land border is closed to non-essential traffic, most of the people currently crossing into Canada by land are essential workers who are exempt from quarantine.
At this point, the hotel quarantine rule won’t apply to travellers crossing into Canada by land. But the government has indicated it’s working on tougher rules at the land border, such as a COVID-19 test requirement for non-essential travellers.
“We’re also looking at ways to further strengthen our land border measures,” Trudeau said on Friday. “We’ll have more to announce on this soon.”
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.
