PM Trudeau supports ending mandatory COVID-19 vaccination rules at border
The last of Canada's COVID-19 border restrictions will disappear at the end of this month with the expiry of a cabinet order affecting mandatory vaccinations, testing and quarantine of international travellers.
That expiry also spells the end of insisting travellers use the ArriveCan app to input their vaccine status and test results, though the app will live on as an optional tool for customs and immigration.
It doesn't yet deal with 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 aware of the decision confirmed the cabinet order maintaining COVID-19 border measures will not be renewed when it expires on Sept. 30.
The sources spoke to The Canadian Press on the condition they not be named because they were not authorized to speak publicly. While the Liberal cabinet did meet Thursday afternoon, cabinet approval is not required to allow the order to expire.
One of the sources said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, before the cabinet meeting took place, signed off on the decision not to renew the rules.
The change means international travellers will no longer have to prove they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Under the current rule, Canadians returning to the country who aren't vaccinated must show a negative COVID-19 test result before arriving, and undergo further testing after arrival. They also must quarantine for 14 days.
Foreigners who aren't vaccinated are simply banned from Canada unless they fall into specific categories, such as airline or boat crew members, those who need essential medical treatment, diplomats and temporary foreign workers.
The cabinet order also spells out that vaccinated travellers will be selected for random COVID-19 testing, and requires travellers to submit their vaccine proof and test results electronically.
The only way to do that is through the ArriveCan app.
All of that will end when the clock strikes midnight on Oct. 1.
Tourism Minister Randy Boissonnault would not confirm the decision Thursday afternoon, but he said if the order is allowed to expire, that would also eliminate the only mandatory component for the ArriveCan app.
"So the mandatory piece is the vaccine piece, and because that's how people prove it through the ArriveCan, that's how the order is written, from what I remember," he said on his way into the cabinet meeting.
ArriveCan has morphed into a digitized border arrival tool, and now people flying into certain airports can use it to fill out their customs and immigration form instead of the paper version.
Boissonnault said that is in keeping with the digitization of border forms in a number of countries, including Europe, and long term will make for faster, smoother border experiences.
"If we're going to want to go from 22 million visitors in 2019, to something closer to 30 million by 2030, we're going to have to have a digital border," he said.
The order's expiration also means the minister of health will no longer be able to quickly bar citizens of specific countries facing COVID-19 outbreaks from coming to Canada. That measure was used to ban people from India and certain African countries at various points, moves criticized by some as racist.
Canada's COVID-19 border measures 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 quarantine to be fully or partially completed in specific hotels.
Between March 2020 and August 2021, foreign nationals couldn't enter Canada period with some exemptions for critical workers including airline crew, health workers, and truck drivers.
In July 2021, once all Canadian adults and teenagers could access vaccines, the government stopped requiring quarantine for fully-vaccinated Canadian travellers.
In August 2021 they opened the border to fully vaccinated Americans, and in September 2021 the border was opened to fully vaccinated citizens from all countries.
Border measures have become heavily politicized, with the Conservatives demanding Trudeau lift them all, and Leader Pierre Poilievre made ending them a key policy in his recent leadership campaign.
Deputy Conservative leader Melissa Lantsman and the party's Quebec lieutenant, Pierre Paul-Hus, said in a joint statement Wednesday that ending the measures within weeks of Poilievre winning the leadership was convenient.
"Ever since it was introduced, the ArriveCan app has killed jobs, suffocated economies all over the country, and told visitors they weren't welcome in Canada," they said. "Along with unscientific vaccine mandates and mandatory random testing, ArriveCan created the longest delays ever seen at Canada's airports."
Delays at airports were partially blamed on ArriveCan, as some travellers who struggled to get it to work, or couldn't or wouldn't use it, backed up lines. However, the delays have also been blamed on labour shortages affecting everything from airport workers to security and border guards.
Dr. Zain Chagla, an infectious disease specialist, has been arguing against mandatory vaccinations and testing at the border for months. In an interview Thursday he said testing asymptomatic travellers at the border is expensive and not as useful as testing symptomatic people in the community.
He said without testing everyone, the policy won't prevent further spread of COVID-19.
The government had long pointed to the random testing as a way to screen for the arrival of new variants but Chagla said there are also better and more convenient ways to look for those as well.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 22, 2022.
IN DEPTH
Jagmeet Singh pulls NDP out of deal with Trudeau Liberals, takes aim at Poilievre Conservatives
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has pulled his party out of the supply-and-confidence agreement that had been helping keep Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's minority Liberals in power.
'Not the result we wanted': Trudeau responds after surprise Conservative byelection win in Liberal stronghold
Conservative candidate Don Stewart winning the closely-watched Toronto-St. Paul's federal byelection, and delivering a stunning upset to Justin Trudeau's candidate Leslie Church in the long-time Liberal riding, has sent political shockwaves through both parties.
'We will go with the majority': Liberals slammed by opposition over proposal to delay next election
The federal Liberal government learned Friday it might have to retreat on a proposal within its electoral reform legislation to delay the next vote by one week, after all opposition parties came out to say they can't support it.
Budget 2024 prioritizes housing while taxing highest earners, deficit projected at $39.8B
In an effort to level the playing field for young people, in the 2024 federal budget, the government is targeting Canada's highest earners with new taxes in order to help offset billions in new spending to enhance the country's housing supply and social supports.
'One of the greatest': Former prime minister Brian Mulroney commemorated at state funeral
Prominent Canadians, political leaders, and family members remembered former prime minister and Progressive Conservative titan Brian Mulroney as an ambitious and compassionate nation-builder at his state funeral on Saturday.
Opinion
opinion Don Martin: Gusher of Liberal spending won't put out the fire in this dumpster
A Hail Mary rehash of the greatest hits from the Trudeau government鈥檚 three-week travelling pony-show, the 2024 federal budget takes aim at reversing the party鈥檚 popularity plunge in the under-40 set, writes political columnist Don Martin. But will it work before the next election?
opinion Don Martin: The doctor Trudeau dumped has a prescription for better health care
Political columnist Don Martin sat down with former federal health minister Jane Philpott, who's on a crusade to help fix Canada's broken health care system, and who declined to take any shots at the prime minister who dumped her from caucus.
opinion Don Martin: Trudeau's seeking shelter from the housing storm he helped create
While Justin Trudeau's recent housing announcements are generally drawing praise from experts, political columnist Don Martin argues there shouldn鈥檛 be any standing ovations for a prime minister who helped caused the problem in the first place.
opinion Don Martin: Poilievre has the field to himself as he races across the country to big crowds
It came to pass on Thursday evening that the confidentially predictable failure of the Official Opposition non-confidence motion went down with 204 Liberal, BQ and NDP nays to 116 Conservative yeas. But forcing Canada into a federal election campaign was never the point.
opinion Don Martin: How a beer break may have doomed the carbon tax hike
When the Liberal government chopped a planned beer excise tax hike to two per cent from 4.5 per cent and froze future increases until after the next election, says political columnist Don Martin, it almost guaranteed a similar carbon tax move in the offing.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Interest rate drops to 3.75% as Bank of Canada makes another cut
The Bank of Canada made a sizable cut to its key lending rate Wednesday from 4.25 per cent to 3.75 per cent as the global economy continues to expand. The half percentage point cut is the fourth rate cut in a row by the central bank as inflation dropped from 2.7 per cent in June to 1.6 per cent in September.
A new report suggests that Canadians' exposure to a radioactive gas is increasing, putting millions of people at a higher risk of developing lung cancer.
Does the updated COVID-19 vaccine protect against the XEC variant?
The XEC strain, a hybrid of Omicron subvariants KS.1.1 and KP.3.3, was first detected in Canada in mid-August and the number of COVID-19 cases with the XEC variant has rapidly increased.
Bank of Montreal says website outage resolved
The Bank of Montreal says it has restored access to its website after an outage Wednesday.
'Unbelievably violent': Gisele Pelicot, French victim of mass rape, takes the stand
Gisele Pelicot, the 72-year-old victim of mass rape whose ordeal has shocked the world, told a trial in southern France on Wednesday that she was determined that making her case public should help other women and change society.
Children's clothing sold at Giant Tiger recalled for lead: Health Canada
A recall has been issued for certain clothing items sold at Giant Tiger stores over high levels of lead, according to a notice published by Health Canada Tuesday.
W5 Investigates How a clothes donation bin company passed itself off as a charity, while donated items were put up for sale
In part two of a four-part investigation into the seedy underbelly of the lucrative clothing donation bin industry, CTV W5 uses trackers tp reveal a for-profit operation masquerading as a charity.
Police have confirmed the body of an employee who died at a Walmart in Halifax over the weekend was found in a walk-in oven.
Liberal caucus meeting underway with a number of MPs set to ask Trudeau to step down
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's caucus is meeting this morning for its weekly gathering, this time with much higher stakes, as an evolving number of MPs is expected to confront the leader and ask him to step down.
Local Spotlight
A meteor lit up our region's sky last night 鈥 with a large fireball shooting across the horizon over Lake Erie at around 7:00 p.m.
Residents of Ottawa's Rideauview neighbourhood say an aggressive wild turkey has become a problem.
A man who lost his life while trying to rescue people from floodwaters, and a 13-year-old boy who saved his family from a dog attack, are among the Nova Scotians who received a medal for bravery Tuesday.
A newly minted Winnipegger is hoping a world record attempt will help bring awareness for the need for more pump track facilities in the city.
A Springfield, Ont. man is being hailed a 'hero' after running into his burning home to save his two infant children.
Hortense Anglin was the oldest graduate to make her way across the platform at York University's Fall Convocation ceremony this week. At the age of 87, she graduated with an Honours degree in Religious Studies.
Looking for a scare with good intentions this Halloween season? The ghosts and ghouls of Eganville, Ont. invite families to tour the Haunted Walk at Lekbor Manor.
The image of a sleepy Saskatchewan small town with 'not a lot going on' is a well-known anecdote. However, one Saskatchewan company is hoping to change that 鈥 and allow communities both on and off the beaten path to share their stories and advertise what they have to offer.
A Moncton, N.B., home has been donated to the Friends of The Moncton Hospital Foundation and will be transformed into a resource hub for people living with cancer.