Canada’s four main airlines – Air Canada, WestJet, Sunwing, and Air Transat – will be suspending service to all destinations in the Caribbean and Mexico starting this Sunday until April 30, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced today.
In addition, he says all Canadian travellers returning from abroad will have to take a COVID-19 PCR test at the airport after they land and quarantine in a designated hotel for three days at their own expense while they await results, a move that is expected to cost more than $2,000.
People who test negative will have to quarantine at home for the rest of the two weeks, while those with positive tests will have to quarantine in designated government facilities.
Further, all international flights will also only be allowed to land in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, or Montreal.
The Prime Minister says it’s important to further restrict international travel as more infectious variants of COVID-19 spread around the globe with projections showing that the U.K. COVID-19 variant will be the dominant strain in parts of Canada by March.
“We’ve seen public health monitoring that shows what happens if these variants do take hold in Canada. We saw that one travel case resulted in many, many cases of the U.K. variant,” Trudeau said this morning.
For weeks, Canadians have been told to not take any non-essential trips outside the country as Trudeau warned the federal government could impose restrictions at any time that would make it harder for them to return. He noted the four Canadian airlines will be making arrangements with their customers currently in Mexico or the Caribbean to organize flights home.
“Our government is committed to the safe restart and recovery of the Canadian travel and tourism sector as soon as conditions improve, ideally later this year. As part of this effort, the Government of Canada has committed to work with the major airlines on the future relationship between testing and quarantine requirements,” Trudeau said.
“This will enable the safe, gradual return to international air travel grounded in science and evidence.”
In the coming weeks, all non-essential travelers to Canada will also have to show a negative COVID test at the land border with the United States.
“And we’re working to stand up additional testing requirements for land travel,” the prime minister added.
This morning’s move comes after weeks of mounting political pressure on the federal government to tighten up border travel. Australia and the United Kingdom have similar quarantine measures in place for returning travellers.
Canada has had a ban on non-essential travel since March restricting people who aren’t citizens or permanent residents, though banning Canadians in and out of the country has been more challenging.
All returning travellers have also had to quarantine for two weeks or risk hefty financial penalties or jail time – a measure that’s also been in place since March.
Premier Horgan supportive of new travel measures
Premier John Horgan says the B.C. government is supportive of the new travel measures announced by the federal government, saying it will help keep British Columbians and Canadians safer.
“Our government had been calling for mandatory quarantine measures to restrict international travel further,” he said. “We trust the federal government’s efforts to monitor and follow up with these travellers will be vigilant.”
“These new measures build on British Columbia’s leadership when we brought in requirements for all international travellers to have self-isolation plans in April 2020.”
Horgan too is urging British Columbians to avoid all non-essential travel, noting he’s speaking to the prime minister and premiers across the country about ways to continue to limit non-essential interprovincial travel.
“With vaccines on the way, we look forward to the day when we can once again welcome visitors to B.C. safely,” Horgan said. “Until then, we ask everyone to please stay home.”
– with files from The Canadian Press
