The last of Canada’s COVID-19 border restrictions will disappear at the end of this month with the expiration of the ministerial order affecting mandatory vaccinations, testing and quarantine of international travelers. This expiration also means the end of requiring travelers to use the ArriveCan app to enter their vaccine status and test results, although the app will continue to function as an optional tool for customs and immigration. It does not yet address whether passengers must wear masks on domestic and international trains and planes, because that rule is contained in a separate order issued by the Minister of Transport. Two senior government sources with knowledge of the decision confirmed that the ministerial decision to maintain border measures for COVID-19 will not be renewed when it expires on September 30. The sources spoke to The Canadian Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. While the Liberal cabinet met on Thursday afternoon, cabinet approval is not required to allow the mandate to expire. One of the sources said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, before a cabinet meeting, signed off on the decision not to renew the rules. The change means international travelers will no longer need to prove they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Under the current rule, Canadians returning to the country who have not been vaccinated must present a negative COVID-19 test result before arriving and undergo further testing after arrival. They must also be quarantined for 14 days. Foreigners who are not vaccinated are simply barred from Canada unless they fall into certain categories, such as airline or boat crew members, those in need of essential medical care, diplomats and temporary foreign workers. The cabinet order also clarifies that vaccinated travelers will be selected for random COVID-19 testing and requires travelers to submit proof of vaccination and test results online. The only way to do this is through the ArriveCan app. All of this will end when the clock strikes midnight on October 1st. Tourism Minister Randy Boissonnault did not confirm the decision Thursday afternoon, but said if the order is allowed to expire, it would also remove the only mandatory component for the ArriveCan application. “Well, the mandatory part is the vaccine part, and because that’s how people prove it through ArriveCan, that’s how the order is written, as I recall,” he said en route to the cabinet meeting. ArriveCan has been transformed into a digitized border arrival tool and now people flying into certain airports can use it to fill in the customs and immigration form instead of the paper version. Boissonnault said it is keeping pace with the digitization of border forms in some countries, including Europe, and will in the long run create faster, smoother border experiences. “If we want to go from 22 million visitors in 2019 to something closer to 30 million by 2030, we have to have a digital frontier,” he said. The end of the mandate also means the health minister will no longer be able to quickly ban citizens of specific countries experiencing outbreaks of COVID-19 from coming to Canada. This measure was used to ban people from India and some African countries at various points, moves criticized by some as racist. Canada’s border measures for COVID-19 have been evolving since the pandemic began in March 2020. For more than a year, Canada invoked a mandatory 14-day quarantine for all returning Canadians and for a time required full or partial quarantine at certain hotels. Between March 2020 and August 2021, foreign nationals could not enter Canada with certain exceptions for critical workers, including airline crew, health care workers and truck drivers. In July 2021, when all Canadian adults and adolescents could access the vaccines, the government stopped requiring quarantine for fully vaccinated Canadian travelers. In August 2021 the borders were opened to fully vaccinated Americans and in September 2021 the borders were opened to fully vaccinated citizens from all countries. The border measures have been heavily politicized, with Conservatives demanding Trudeau scrap them all and leader Pierre Poilievre making ending them a key policy in his recent leadership campaign. Conservative deputy leader Melissa Landsman and the party’s Quebec lieutenant, Pierre Paul-Hous, said in a joint statement Wednesday that ending the measures within weeks of Poilievre’s leadership victory was convenient. “Since it was introduced, the ArriveCan application has killed jobs, stifled economies across the country and told visitors they were not welcome in Canada,” they said. “Along with unscientific vaccine mandates and mandatory random testing, ArriveCan has created the longest delays ever seen at Canadian airports.” Airport delays were partly blamed on ArriveCan, as some travelers who struggled to get it to work or were unable or unwilling to use it backed up. But the delays have also been attributed to labor shortages affecting everything from airport workers to border guards. Dr. Zane Chagla, an infectious disease specialist, has been advocating for months against mandatory vaccinations and border testing. He said in an interview Thursday that testing asymptomatic travelers at the border is expensive and not as useful as testing symptomatic people in the community. He said that without testing everyone, the policy will not prevent the further spread of COVID-19. The government has long touted random testing as a way to check for the arrival of new variants, but Chagla said there are also better and more convenient ways to look for those, too. This report by The Canadian Press was first published on September 22, 2022.
