Originally Posted by
Doors Closing
Where there is no competition, there are no standards whatsoever: in the UK you could select and pay yourself from a list of PCR providers, and take the test within 48 hours, results are always provided by next day, and companies compete for you, the client. Since the providers are the sole options at their respective airports, their no-standards policy are upheld, no incentive at all. What is verily bewildering is that Air Canada is also now in bed with Switch Health, and countless travellers are in an elongated self-isolation...
Originally Posted by
airoli
It is my impression that the Federal Government is once again trying to make international travel as unpleasant as possible, without actually banning it. The onerous arrival test requirements, combined with ridiculous times until results are provided (no service standards defined with labs) and the requirement to quarantine in the meantime, are clearly intended to discourage people from travelling. At a time when community transmission within the - largely untested - general population in Canada is rampant, this is both stupid and despicable.
I agree with both of these statements and have an even hotter take. I think the Canadian government is not very interested in ensuring compliance of the supposed quarantine / self-isolation requirements until results are available (or even after a positive test). I've been home for 2 days waiting for my Switch Health results, and the government has done absolutely nothing to encourage, much less enforce, my isolation. Immediately after the test, I was free to go on my own merry way, and since I don't drive, getting to my apartment required either taking public transit or sharing a vehicle with an Uber / taxi driver or a friend. Once at home, there is none of the surveillance nor support mechanisms countries actually serious about quarantine requirements have put in place. There is also the now well-known stat that the government had "
no idea if 75 per cent of air arrivals obeyed hotel quarantine rule".
All that leads me to conclude that this travel advisory + testing requirement are intended to:
- Make travel as inconvenient as possible to discourage it, and
- Put on political theatre to show the public the government is doing something.