Immigration
U.S. border remains closed to Canadian tourists
After Canada reopens border to fully vaccinated travellers, U.S. officials say travel is still too risky.
The U.S. has extended its travel restrictions on Canadians crossing the border by land and ferry.
The U.S. government released a notice on its registrar extending existing measures starting at midnight on July 22, and remaining in effect until August 21 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time. It comes just days after Canada announced it would be reopening the border to fully vaccinated U.S. tourists starting August 9.
“Given the outbreak and continued transmission and spread of COVID-19 within the United States and globally, the Secretary has determined that the risk of continued transmission and spread of the virus associated with COVID-19 between the United States and Canada poses an ongoing ‘specific threat to human life or national interests,’” the U.S. government wrote.
The notice currently does not apply to those travelling by air, cargo rail, or sea between Canada and the U.S. It does apply to passenger rail, passenger ferry travel, and pleasure boat travel between the two countries. Only “essential travel” will be allowed to come by these modes of transportation.
The U.S. defines “essential travellers” as those who are:
- U.S. citizens and permanent residents returning home;
- travelling for medical purposes;
- attending educational institutions;
- travelling to work;
- travelling for emergency response;
- engaging in lawful cross-border trade, such as truck drivers;
- engaging in official government or diplomatic travel;
- U.S. armed forces members and their spouses and children; and
- travelling for military-related operations.
Travelling for tourism, sightseeing, recreation, or cultural events is considered non-essential.
The news comes as cases in the U.S. are rising from a slump in June. The delta variant is making up 83 per cent of new cases in the U.S., CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, said at a Senate hearing. In Canada, new daily cases are down to August 2020 levels. A total of 396 new cases were reported in Canada on July 20.
The border between Canada and the U.S. has been closed since March 2020, shortly after the World Health Organization deemed the coronavirus to be a global pandemic.
Shelby Thevenot
P Frink
July 25, 2021 at 2:58 PM
The reason the US has decided to keep the land border closed to Canadians is a simple retaliation for Trudeau’s insistence on keeping the pre-arrival PCR-test requirement in place for Americans wanting to come to Canada.
Roughly HALF of Americans are fully vaccinated against Covid. That already cuts the numbers down significantly for tourists able to come to Canada, while the US has no such requirement for Canadians entering the US. Unvaccinated Canadians can enter the US at their leisure (via airplane).
Of the Americans wanting to enter Canada for tourism purposes, how many will be willing to pay $200 for a PCR-Test within 72-hours of crossing, and PER PERSON??!!?? A family of 4 will be paying nearly $1,000 just to cross into Canada! Trudeau’s “change” in border policy will make but a tiny blip in American tourism revenue coming to Canada.
This is yet another Trudeau failure on Covid border-policy, yet the media is making the Americans out to be the bad guys in this drama. Nope, it’s the other way around. The only way for Canada to actually help the Canadian tourism industry (and thereby Canadian economy) is to drop the pre-arrival PCT-test requirement for travelers, even in maintaining the vaccination requirement.
If Trudeau drops the pre-arrival requirement for Americans, he will have no choice but to drop the pre-arrival PCR-test requirement for returning Canadians. Everybody knows that policy is nothing other than a deterrent to Canadians from leaving Canada. Until Trudeau drops the pre-arrival PCR-test requirement, Canadians should get used to not being able to drive into the US. The Americans are absolutely right in taking this stance against Canada.