Justin Trudeau’s government began to sketch out necessary conditions to ease travel restrictions at the Canada-U.S. border.
Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic Leblanc said Friday that U.S. and Canadian officials are discussing how to move forward with reopening the world’s longest international border, which has been closed to non-essential traffic for more than a year to curb the spread of coronavirus.
“We recognize that in the coming weeks, when the number of vaccinated people grows and if we continue to see a reduction in Covid cases and hospitalizations, that we may be in a position to progressively loosen these measures,” Leblanc told reporters.
His comments come after Trudeau’s government began holding internal discussions about options available to loosen travel rules as vaccination rates rise and COVID-19 case counts drop on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border. Bloomberg News was first to report the talks last Friday.
“We are working with the Biden administration to -- as much as possible-- to align our measures at the border with the United States. These discussions are ongoing,” Leblanc said.
Transport Minister Omar Alghabra highlighted benchmarks officials are using in their consideration of easing border restrictions, such as the ban on direct flights from India and Pakistan that was extended by a month on Friday. Alghabra said the government is assessing the situation both in Canada and abroad, specifically the number of infections and hospitalizations, the spread of variants and vaccination rates.
“Eventually we’re going to start opening up travel,” Alghabra said at the same Ottawa press briefing. “But right now we’re focused on the third wave.”
Canada closed the border it shares with its largest trading partner to all non-essential travel in March 2020. It later imposed a mandatory 14-day quarantine for anyone entering the country from abroad. Travelers must now present a negative COVID-19 test and foot the bill for additional tests and a three-day hotel quarantine before being allowed to leave confinement.
Trudeau, speaking to reporters Tuesday, flagged a 75 per cent vaccination rate as key threshold when asked about potentially reopening the border.
Almost 40 per cent of Canadians have received a first dose, but just over 3 per cent are fully inoculated, according to the Bloomberg Vaccine Tracker. By comparison, more than 48 per cent of Americans have had their first shot and 38 per cent are fully vaccinated.
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