On Time Reports

I don't understand the government's decision making process here... During the same press conference, Public Safety Minister also announced that they are discussing a testing pilot program at YYZ. I imagine this is something similar to what is taking place at YYC (the ability to quarantine for only 48 hours).

But during the same press conference, they brag about how Canada has some of the strongest border measures in the world and renewed their call for Canadians to not travel abroad for non-discretionary reasons.

Why impose more conditions on people eligible to come to Canada when at the same time you are exploring options to reduce quarantine time?

FYI, the pilot program was discussed during the last minute of this YouTube video:

SFO777

Good one.

Yul_voyager

Interesting... they are talking about a PCR test. So no rapid antigen testing before boarding possible, like for other destinations...
That would really makes things more complicated for some...

tcook052

Seems this decision is based on optics rather than reason as Ottawa has itself admitted the very low number of positive cases imported from abroad:

The federal government has advised against non-essential travel outside Canada since the start of the pandemic, though officials noted Wednesday that about two per cent of COVID-19 cases have been brought into the country from overseas.

YOWgary

Blair's statement this morning was pretty clear on this - essentially "we can't make it illegal to travel, and begging you not to travel hasn't worked, so now we're going to start using whatever other tools are available to us."

sydneyracquelle

Canadians are not allowed to enter USA by land only by air.

kevflyer

Fair enough so if they present themselves at the land border they'd be stuck as they can't go back, so Canada has to let them in.

YZF_Elite

A few more details released by the Minister in an interview on CBC a few minutes ago:

- rules will be in place 'within about a week'
- airlines will be required to administer it to confirm who has a test
- if people arrive without a test they will need to go into a government approved center until they can be tested, details being worked out
- no details about how the government approved centers cost will be dealt with, details being worked out
- no plans for this to replace quarantine, though they are talking about other programs like the AB one
- further details will be released tomorrow

Reporter didn't ask about if there will be any exceptions or how essential workers will be handled.

kevflyer

So what's the point of setting up government approved center to test people arriving without a test if they are also going to require pax to have a negative test before they can board (that's my take since they're working with airlines on this)?

Or... if they're simply letting people fly even without a negative test and just transport them to a center, get tested, before they clear immigration? If that's the case, we need to know how much that test will cost, and if anyone will even bother going to get tested before flying.

rankourabu

So acknowledging that legally, they cant prevent you from coming home - but they can make it difficult for you once you get here in the name of "health" I can see how the optics of this will look good to the sheeple judging by the comments like "about time!" on various forums. In reality 80% will probably continue to be exempt, and nothing has been done to actually address this (non) issue.

How about we tighten the rules about what is considered essential instead?

m.y

It serves as a back stop just in case if someone were to slip through the pre-departure screen, not designed as the default case.

m.y

Sure, it's not perfect, but it's an important step to reduce the importation of cases from leisure travelers. Most of the essential workers exempt are truck drivers, delivering goods. The goal of this is really to discourage Canadians from taking leisure trips to Florida and other warm places.

Yes, travel only accounts for small percentage of spread today, but any kind of domestic lockdown measures would not yield any results if new cases keep trickle in from abroad.

sydneyracquelle

I still don’t know what happens on my frequent business day trips YYZ>LGA>YYZ. No time in NYC to run around for a test so I guess I just do one in YYZ before I leave?

rankourabu

There were 7 million people who entered Canada since the pandemic started according to the CBC. 2.5 million were truckers, people I have no problem with exemptiong.
There were a further 3+ million exempt for various reasons - this is where the rules need to change.

This is done so that the government can look good - there is no practical point to putting this requirement in - it doesnt prevent anything when we still exempt hundreds of thousands of non-essential people from any rules

tcook052

And presumably no plans for how long this requirement will be in place. Indefinitely? Until case counts start to drop permanently in Summer when enough Canadians are vaccinated and the advisory against non-essential travel possibly rescinded? Too many unanswered questions.