The federal government plans to drop the COVID-19 vaccine requirement for people entering Canada by the end of September, the same day it ends random arrivals testing and makes the ArriveCan application optional, according to The Globe and Mail. The changes, for arrivals at land, air and sea ports of entry, are scheduled for Sept. 30 but have not yet been finalized by the Cabinet, according to four sources The Globe did not name because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the material. The mask requirement for people on trains and planes will remain in place, two of the sources said, under the direction of Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos. The airline and travel industries have pressed the government to relax rules covering international travel, saying they are discouraging visitors and out of step with many other countries as the pandemic eases. The United States requires all participants to be vaccinated, and it is not known if the requirement will be lifted at the same time as Canada. The ArriveCan app is used for arriving passengers to submit their customs declarations, vaccine status and travel plans. It has been criticized as cumbersome and a contributor to the lineups and logjams that characterized many Canadian airports last summer. Nadine Ramadan, a director in the office of Transport Minister Omar Alghabra, declined to comment and referred questions to Marco Mendicino, the Minister of Public Security. His office did not immediately respond to an email. John Gradek, a former Air Canada executive who teaches aviation leadership at McGill University, said he heard from discussions with industry members that passengers would still be able to submit their travel plans, customs declarations and their information using the application. or stand in a queue to do so. On June 20, the government suspended vaccine requirements for domestic and outbound travelers, federal government employees and federally regulated industry workers. The government cited the decline in COVID-19 cases and the fact that 32 million people, or 90 percent of eligible Canadians, had been vaccinated.
