Canada yesterday lifted its prohibition on Americans crossing the border to shop, vacation or visit, but the US is keeping similar restrictions in place for Canadians, part of a bumpy return to normalcy from COVID-19 travel bans.
US citizens and legal permanent residents must be fully vaccinated and test negative for COVID-19 within three days to cross one of the world’s longest and busiest land borders. Travelers must also fill out a detailed on application on the arriveCAN app before crossing.
Even though travelers have to register, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) would not say how many people they are expecting to enter Canada for the reopening. Travelers should plan for the possibility of additional processing time at the border.
Photo: Reuters
“CBSA will not compromise the health and safety of Canadians for the sake of border wait times,” agency spokeswoman Rebecca Purdy said in a statement.
Garnet Health, a company that offers same-day COVID-19 testing, said that the number of tests it performs has more than tripled in the past few weeks.
The increase coincides with Canada’s decision last month to drop a two-week quarantine requirement for its citizens when they return home from the US.
“I imagine once that border opens, we are going to see lots of people,” said Chelsea Sweeney, the company’s director of business development.
The US-Canada border has been closed to nonessential travel since March last year to try to slow the spread of COVID-19.
The US has said it would extend its closure to all Canadians making nonessential trips until at least Saturday next week, which also applies to the Mexican border, but US President Joe Biden’s administration is beginning to make plans for a phased reopening.
The main requirement would be that nearly all foreign visitors to the US would have to be vaccinated against the coronavirus.
Canadians are not waiting for reciprocal rules.
Joel Villanueva, owner of Primo’s Mexican Grill in White Rock, British Columbia, about 4km north of the US border, is more than ready for Americans to return.
“Let’s get this thing going,” he said. “A lot of our customers are from the United States, and we are literally minutes from across the border. We welcome our Americans, and we depend on their foot traffic.”
Villanueva said he supports people coming who are fully vaccinated and does not think there will be a rush of Americans initially.
If his restaurant and dozens of others along the waterfront could fill some tables with US visitors every day for the rest of the summer, it would be a big financial boost, he said.
Near the border in Washington state, Blaine Chamber of Commerce board member Carroll Solomon called the reopening a step in the right direction for businesses.
She also said it was somewhat concerning because of an increase in COVID-19 cases nationwide as the highly contagious Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 spreads.
“For people who need to get up there [to Canada] for family reasons, it’s wonderful,” said Solomon, who also volunteers at the Blaine Visitor Information Center.
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
RSS