Transport Minister Marc Garneau is expected to provide more details today about the new requirement for air passengers to test negative for COVID-19 before entering Canada.
Cabinet ministers announced Wednesday that air passengers will soon need to provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test before arriving in the country.
Under the new rule, travellers must receive a negative result on a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test — the standard nose swab test for detecting active COVID-19 infections — within 72 hours of boarding a flight back to Canada.
But many details — including the date the new rule will be in force — were still being sorted out when the policy was announced this week.
Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc said Garneau — who is in talks with airlines and officials in his department — is expected to share more details today.
John Gradek, a former Air Canada executive and a lecturer at McGill University’s global aviation leadership program, said the new policy likely is putting pressure on an already strained relationship between the government and the airline industry, which has been pleading for a bailout.
“While [the government hasn’t] said it’s forbidden by law, they strongly recommend people not travel. And industry is basically saying, come on down, the flights are open, weather’s nice, it’s nice and warm in the sunny Caribbean,” he said.
“Christmas is a very, very important time of year for carriers to be able to fill their airplanes and make some money, and that’s what they’re doing.”
Tim Perry is president of the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) Canada, which represents pilots at 15 airlines. He said the industry was caught off-guard by the policy change.
“[Wednesday’s] announcement not only fell short of providing any concrete details but was made with little to no consultation with key airline industry stakeholders, including ALPA Canada, prior to its release,” he said in a media statement.
“The statement once again underscores the federal government’s lack of appreciation for the importance of working with the aviation sector to create good policy as we weather the COVID-19 pandemic together.”
Gradek said more communications with the airlines — which likely will play a key role in deploying this new program — could have helped smooth things over.
“You’re seeing a lot of angst and … a lot of potential distrust between the carriers and Transport Canada and that’s got to stop,” he said.
“You know, we’ve got to really make sure that we’re looking at doing doing this thing as an industry, as a regulator, and making sure we’re both looking at the same issue and talking on the same sides of our mouth when we talk about policy. We can’t keep going with this … tussle going on between Transport Canada and the aviation industry.”
Bloc pushes for more tests
LeBlanc said it will be up to travellers to arrange for PCR tests themselves, given that those embarking on non-essential trips overseas have chosen already to flout public health guidelines.
“The government of Canada obviously is not in a position to set up in hotels or all-inclusive resorts or Canadian consulates,” he said in an interview with CBC News Wednesday.
The new rule does not replace Canada’s mandatory 14-day quarantine period for international travellers, which remains in force.
Travellers who are unable to procure tests before their flights home won’t be stranded abroad, LeBlanc said. Immediately upon their return to Canada, he said, those passengers will be required to isolate at federally-approved sites until they obtain negative test results and meet other quarantine commitments.
Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet said today that the testing requirement should apply to all travellers, not just those arriving by air.
In a media statement, he also said the government should reimburse those who have had to cancel vacations due to the pandemic.
The federal change came a day before Ontario Finance Minister Rod Phillips resigned after returning from a controversial Caribbean vacation while the province is under strict lockdown measures that discourage non-essential travel.