Canada Will Sell Itself as a Safe Destination When Borders Open, But When Will That Be?

Canada Will Sell Itself as a Safe Destination When Borders Open, But When Will That Be?

May 5, 2021 Jim Byers

Canada is working on vaccine passports and will position itself as a safe destination once the pandemic eases, says Canadian Tourism Minister Melanie Joly.

Speaking with Reuters following a virtual meeting of G20 travel leaders on Tuesday, Joly said the Trudeau government is working with allies on a standardized vaccine certificate that would ease international travel.

Canada has been slow with vaccinations, but inoculations are picking up quickly.

“Clearly as vaccination is being rolled out, we will position ourself as a safe destination,” Joly said.

Exactly when international visitors will begin to arrive is another matter. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday said summer travel might be in the cards for Canadians if vaccination rates keep increasing and COVID-19 cases drop.

The head of the Public Health Agency of Canada said last month that Ottawa might be able to loosen restrictions once 75% of Canadians have their first vaccine dose, and another 20% have both doses. A professor at the University of Calgary, Trevor Tombe, recently suggested that Canada could reach those numbers by June 28.

The Canada-U.S. border is currently closed to all but essential traffic until May 21. Given the COVID-19 spike in Alberta, it’s likely that will be extended until June 21.

But tourism and travel officials on both sides of the border hope things might begin to ease after that, which would save the summer season for hotels, tour operators, restaurants and others in the hospitality and travel/tourism industries.

Not everyone is that optimistic, however. In a story that appeared on the CBC’s website today (May 5), a foreign policy expert based in Ottawa said he doesn’t think the border will open “for a long, long time.”

Aaron Ettinger, an associate professor at Carleton University who specializes in Canadian and U.S. foreign policy, said he believes the borders will remain largely shut for at least a few more months.

“My gut tells me it’s going to be [closed] at least well into the fall of 2021,” he told the CBC, “because things are literally ten times worse now than they were this time last year with infection rates, with ICU admissions.”

Melissa Haussman, a political science professor at Carleton, said a border opening is “probably a few months off.”

“I would say my speculative guess is probably [reopening in] late summer, earliest, and I don’t even know if that’ll happen,” she said.

If Haussman and Ettinger are right, it could mean another summer in which Canadian tour operators will rely on domestic visitors to keep their lights on.

“Definitely there will still be a lot of local and regional travel” this summer, Joly said in her talk with Reuters, which suggests Canada might at least see an easing of intra-provincial restrictions.