Starting next week, non-essential travellers entering Canada through the land border with the United States will need to provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test before being allowed into the country, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Tuesday.
“As of Feb.15, when you return to Canada through a land border, you’ll need to show a 72-hour PCR test, just like air travel,” Trudeau told reporters during his media briefing outside Rideau Cottage in Ottawa.
The measure doesn’t apply to essential workers such as truck drivers and aircraft crew, as well as medical workers commuting to work across the border.
The latest statistics from the Canada Border Services Agency show that since the end of March 2.9 million people, excluding truck drivers, entered through a land border crossing, while 2.4 million arrived by airplane.
Fines up to $3,000 for those without test results
Trudeau said the federal government cannot prevent Canadians from returning to the country at a land border, even without a test, but if they don’t have the required test they can be fined up to $3,000.
“What we can do is in cases of no test to show apply a stiff penalty, a fine and demand and ensure a rapid and complete followup to make sure that they are getting tested, that they are being properly quarantined, that they are not putting at risk the safety of other Canadians by returning home without a clear negative test,” Trudeau said.
Those landing by plane also will soon need to pay for a test after they land as well. The government promised in late January that all air passengers returning from non-essential trips abroad will have to self-isolate in a federally mandated facility for up to 72 hours at their own expense.
It’s still not clear when those new restrictive measures come into place.
‘We are not detaining people’
The testing requirement is in addition to the mandatory 14-day quarantine period for returning non-essential travellers. The government has had travel restrictions on most foreign nationals in place since March 2020.
Trudeau said the various levels of government will have to be “extremely nimble” as they react to the reality of new COVID-19 variants entering the country.
“That’s going to require all of us to continue working together, to continue to get the vaccines in as quickly as possible but also making sure we’re keeping up to date on the testing, the contact tracing and everything each of us can individually do to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe,” Trudeau said.
Trudeau defended the introduction of tighter rules for non-essential travelers, saying the measure was needed in the interests of public health.
“We are not detaining people, these are public health measures that are necessary to ensure that we are keeping Canadians safe, particularly given the arrival of new variants in Canada and extensively around the world,” Trudeau said.
With files from CBC News and The Canadian Press
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