Time For Trudeau to Give Canadians A U.S. Border Re-Opening Plan
March 19, 2021 Jim Byers
It’s time, Justin.
The Canadian-U.S. border will have been closed for a year as of Sunday, March 21. It was a necessary decision, and Thursday’s quiet announcement to extend that closure to April 21 was a no-brainer.
A closed border is a good thing or both countries as long as essential supplies can be shipped and as long as reasonable border guards (ahem) allow folks to go in and out for compassionate travel purposes. But it’s time to signal when a change might take place.
Yes, variants are on the rise. That’s troubling. But vaccines also are being rolled out, especially in the U.S. Medical experts say travel restrictions can be eased once most of us are vaccinated, and Canadian health officials on Thursday said that all Canadians who want a jab will have one by the end of June, barring unforeseen delays.
Nobody can say today whether the border should open June 1 or July 4 or August 5. But it IS time for someone in the Trudeau government to at least provide the public and struggling businesses with a set of guidelines that will be used to make an informed decision.
U.S. President Joe Biden this week was able to do just that. Sources told CNBC that Biden wants to relax border restrictions with Canada, Mexico, Europe and Brazil by mid-May. If Joe can do it, so can Justin.
How hard would it be for Dr. Theresa Tam to stand up and say, “Okay, here’s the deal. We’re at infection rate X today. If we knock that down to infection rate Y and keep it there for three weeks, and if numbers are equally low in the U.S., then we can safely open the border as long as we keep some rules in place, such as limited indoor dining, mandatory mask wearing in public, etc….”
That’s a not a hard and fast date. That’s not a guaranteed border opening parade. But it’s a road map that would people and business folks to at least try to make a plan.
Right now, there doesn’t appear to be even the inkling of an idea of a proposal to come up with a plan.
The CBC recently reported that conversations with officials in both countries in recent days revealed that, “even as vaccinations ramp up, neither government has defined what it will take to reopen the border. They say there’s no secret document laying out such benchmarks — such as, for example, the number of vaccine doses required for a return to normal, or the number of coronavirus cases reported.”
Not having any kind of re-opening plan a year into the border shutdown is ridiculous. Tourism, which is responsible for roughly one in ten jobs in Canada and around the world has been the hardest hit business sector on the planet. But tourism needs lead time. A business person who runs hiking tours in Banff can’t just flick a switch and run their operation the next day. They need to plan transportation for people and arrange food and be sure their guides are properly trained and certified. They need a little advance warning, or at least an idea when authorities think they can safely let folks cross the border.
In a story we published earlier this month, Jason Sarracini of Ontario-based Omega Tours said he’s frustrated that there’s no re-opening plan.
“I can call a local provider, someone who provides an experience. But they don’t know when they’re going to be operating. That has a cascading effect. I don’t know when my partners will be able to operate or if they can survive,” Sarracini said.
The UK has provided residents with tentative dates for when travel will reopen, and there’s no reason Canada can’t do the same.
“The ability to plan and have a road map is what we absolutely need,” Sarracini said. “It’s incredibly frustrating.”
Roger Dow, head of the U.S. Travel Association, has made the same point, arguing that tourism operators on both sides of the border need someone to at least lay out potential re-opening dates.
The good news is that some Canadian premiers are starting the work on their own. According to the Globe and Mail, New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs says the three Maritime provinces plan to enter into a travel bubble by mid-April, with Newfoundland and Labrador joining later. Higgs said he hopes barriers to visitors from the rest of Canada could be lifted by early July, and wouldn’t that be a joy.
Prince Edward Island Premier Dennis King told the CBC that many issues would need to be discussed before any such decision is made.
“We still need to determine at the national table, sort of, what that looks like,” King said. “How we travel, what is required to travel, and what documents, if any, they will need. Will masking still need to take place? All of these different factors.”
New York congressman Brian Higgins, the Democratic chairman of the Congressional Northern Border Caucus in the U.S. is urging President Joe Biden to prioritize a gradual easing of the border restrictions.
“The distance to Canada is now further than it has ever been in my lifetime,” Higgins said in a recent letter to the president.
“Given the economic and social costs the border closure has had on the region, we must prioritize efforts to expand essential-traveller exceptions and plan for an incremental reopening now.”
The Globe and Mail’s story quoted Dr. Isaas Bogoch of the University of Toronto as saying that public health concerns can be relaxed once the vast majority of Canadians get their first vaccination. How one defines “vast majority” is debatable, but 65 to 70 per cent seems like a pretty strong margin.
That could be another signpost or guideline that the federal government could use. “If infections are at a rate of X and two-thirds of Canadians have their vaccines, we can then safely open the border with health restrictions Y and Z remaining in place.”
That’s not a hard thing to say, Mr. Trudeau. But it would go a long way to easing the minds of Canadians and Americans alike.
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