exbayern

So how do they know if your pink or green sticker is from this arrival, or a previous arrival? If you had 3x arrivals in Canada, you would have 3x stickers. How can they tell which is the current one? (My is green, no date, but I was sent to test and as noted above, never got any results at all before I left the country again)

And agree with the others that this is a shocking waste of resources, especially when one reads online the people in BC etc who cannot even get tested at this point at testing centres when ill. Why waste all of this testing healthy people who had a negative test a few hours before?!

EmailKid

Um, not to defend the Gov't, but you do realize it is not the feds who do the testing or process the test, eh?

mountainboy

It is the Feds who decided that international arriving passengers need to be tested upon arrival.
They contracted the various health operators, and forced this upon the airports.
Noone else was involved in the decision, only the Feds.

krayZpaving

Also arrived at YYZ on Dec 31 afternoon (transiting on to domestic) and still waiting for a result 4 days later.
I guess whatever contract there is with the providers has this at lower priority than their private outbound travel tests (which makes sense for the providers and probably reduced the cost to the taxpayer significantly!).

EmailKid

Yup, we are in agreement there.

Doors Closing

Switch Health seems to be the provider of the arrival PCR tests, paid for by the government. Cannot find a single answer on their website, as per how long does it take to get results. Fourth day and counting (2 of their people at the airport gave me 2 versions: 48hr and 72hr) In the meantime, vaxed or not, in quarantine...It seemed to me upon arrival all are sent to be tested.

I know of people who are 6 days after travel yet to get results. Anyone has any other DP re this company's service standards? It is the one thing that get me truly concerned about using their services at all..

rankourabu

The old green sticker has different writing on it.

However that didnt stop the sticker checker from telling us to leave without testing without I assume noticing the pink sticker on the other side of the passport.
Who are we to argue.

The more green stickers you have the better I guess 😂

escape4

I already had green sticker and they did not give me a new green sticker so I only have one. My wife got green sticker on her passport and it looked different than mine; mine says PHAC in big letters and hers says PHAC-ASPC in small letters.

fereke

Not much better with Dynacare at YUL. Empty arrival, it seemed everyone was sent to testing. Light blue sticker with ASPC PHAC on the passport.
Nurse told me 24-48h when she took the swab. I called after 3 days and they said up to 5 days. I guess they'll say 7 when I call later today.
Can't help but comparing to DXB where I got results in 12h

Now wondering what would happen if no result received by the time I am due to leave Canada.

escape4

Same here. Got < 12h in UAE. Also <12 hours in Bermuda and Thailand.

This stuff of waiting multiple days is utterly ridiculous.

Bogwoppit

You just leave. Nobody will stop you.

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...

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.

capedreamer

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.

Doors Closing

"Political theatre" is a great way to put it, thank you for that.

Arriving into T3 5 days ago (and still awaiting PCR results...) if there is any place I could get positive IS YYZ T3! Social-distancing? the CBSA hall was over-crowded, packed to the extent I cannot recall in years of rather intense travelling. Waiting in line at the hall is the first part, if you missed the virus there, no worries, waiting with the same pax at the Switch Health arrival hall is next, and same 30 minutes wait. In the last few weeks I have not been to ANY place where chances of getting the virus were so high...The Switch Health facility could have been replaced by the same options as I mentioned in my upper post, i.e. select your provider and do it yourself within 48 hours, much better experience, less crowded airports!