Canada recommends against non-essential international travel

The latest advice from Ottawa to Canadians is to avoid travelling internationally at this time due to a spike in global COVID-19 cases, and the Omicron variant.

The federal government reinstated the advisory against international travel Wednesday. A similar advisory was lifted in October after being in place since early on in the pandemic.

“We are asking Canadians to be cautious heading into the holiday season. If you do not need to travel internationally, please do not,” Canada’s Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs Dominic LeBlanc said.

“The information currently available suggests a significant resurgence of infections even without taking into account the new Omicron variant,” Federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said.

“Now is not the time to travel,” Duclos said, adding, “travelling Canadians could contract the virus or get stranded abroad.”

“We now know that community transmission is present in Canada and across the globe — in some circumstances extremely rapidly. Whether we like it or not, we must therefore adjust to this reality,” Duclos said.

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland urged all Canadians to get a booster as soon as possible to ensure protection against the virus, and pledged that more help would be coming to the provinces to assist in testing practices.

“We are investing a further $1.7 billion to procure and distribute a further 180 million rapid tests,” Freeland said. 85 million rapid tests were already sent to provinces before December, and an additional 35 million are being sent before January.

All provinces and territories are also being urged to ramp up booster doses.

“We have 16 million doses now in stock, either at the federal level or provincial or territorial inventories. At the current rate that’s enough for many weeks of booster doses and there will be many more millions coming in the next few weeks and next few months,” Duclos said.

No quarantine for travellers

The ministers did not announce any changes to current COVID-19 travel rules, nor would it reinstate a mandatory quarantine.

Currently, vaccinated travellers do not need to quarantine upon entry to Canada as long as they have a negative COVID-19 test.

For short trips, less than 72 hours, no COVID-19 test is required. 

Canada’s Transport Minister Omar Alghabra did not provide more details into what Canada is considering, only saying the feds are monitoring the situation.

“We are given how fastly evolving this situation is, we are constantly reassessing so when we feel we need to change our policies we will announce it as quickly as possible,” Alghabra said.

More information will be provided in the coming days, Duclos added.

Asked if Canada will consider banning all international travellers, @jyduclos says Canada will continue to monitor the situation and do what it thinks is necessary.
So not taking it off the table.

— Lasia Kretzel (@rhymeswpretzel) December 15, 2021

The advisory follows an emergency meeting Tuesday night between the prime minister and the premiers.

Duclos says provinces and territories have the power to decide on any rules surrounding inter-provincial travel.

“We know that community transmission has started in Canada, it will accelerate over the next few weeks and it’s up to the provinces and territories along with the federal government to establish what will need to be done by then,” Duclos explained.

When asked if there will be other measure the Health Minister says there will certainly be other measures as the situation evolves, but at the moment they are announcing the travel advisory #cdnpoli

— Cormac Mac Sweeney (@cmaconthehill) December 15, 2021

WestJet says move ‘is not based on science and data’

WestJet isn’t a fan of Canada’s new travel advisory saying these recommendations are not based on science and data.

The airline says the aviation industry has a good record when it comes to transmitting infections. And it believes the new guidelines could create chaos ahead of the holiday season.

“Air travel is the most tested and protected consumer activity in Canada, every person travelling internationally is tested on average twice throughout their travel journey,” Harry Taylor, WestJet President and CEO, said in a statement. “As the only fully-vaccinated air travel sector in the world, WestJet is calling on the government to publicly share the travel related COVID-19 data that has been used to re-impose the advisory and advice targeted towards fully-vaccinated Canadians and the travel and tourism industry.”

The airline is urging the government to rely on testing and vaccination as a way out of the pandemic.