Trudeau and Biden Talk Border Opening at G7 Session: No Agreement Reached

June 13, 2021 ctn_admin

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Joe Biden talked about the Canada-US border today, but didn’t come to any agreement.

Reuters and Canadian Press both reported the meeting took place while Trudeau and Biden were in England for the G7 leaders’ summit.

According to Reuters, Trudeau said he spoke with Biden “about coordinating measures at our borders as both our countries move ahead with mass vaccination.”

“We will continue to work closely together on moving forward in the right way but each of us always will put at the forefront the interests and the safety of our own citizens,” Trudeau told a the media at a televised news conference.

“Many countries, like Canada, continue to say that now is not the time to travel,” Trudeau said, though he added that it’s important to get back to normalcy as quickly as possible.

The final communique of the G7 leaders didn’t mention vaccine certificates, sometimes called vaccine passports. But Trudeau addressed the issue with reporters, saying that such measures are still being looked at.

“We’re coming to a time when Canadians will be sufficiently vaccinated and then we will talk about travel at that level, and we will put in place a system that respects privacy, (is) easy to use, and can work work everywhere in the world, and will take into account concerns about fairness and justice.”

The border was closed to all but essential traffic in March, 2020. The current closure is due to expire on June 21, and there’s been pressure to reopen from both sides of the border.

Tourism, airline and airport groups from across Canada have said they need to see a plan for the border to reopen so they can hire and train staff for a potential influx of visitors from the U.S. or other countries with fully vaccinated residents. Liberal MP’s Wayne Easter of PEI and Nathaniel Erskine-Smith of Toronto also have called for more open borders.

There’s been considerable pressure exerted from U.S. business groups, as well as elected politicians in border states such as New York, Maine and Washington. It’s believed that Biden also wants to see the border open sooner versus later, but he hasn’t made any public remarks to that effect.

Residents of both countries who want to visit with family members on the other side of the border have formed a Facebook group called Families Are Essential. They’ve been holding regular rallies in Buffalo and Fort Erie to make the case that family members should be considered essential workers and allowed to come and go now that vaccination rates have risen so high in both Canada and the U.S. Another rally was expected today (Sunday, June 13).

The Liberal government in Ottawa recently announced that, as soon as early July, fully vaccinated Canadians can cross the border by car or come into Canada by air and avoid the current 14-day quarantine period, as well as the mandatory , three-day hotel quarantine. Those coming into the country will, however, have to be tested before they come into Canada and again when they arrive, and they’ll have to quarantine at home until their tests come home.

A recent report from a federal science panel said anyone with double vaccination doses should be able to avoid quarantine, but the Trudeau government for now is only talking about extending that courtesy to Canadians.

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