In defence of snowbirds
There’s nothing inherently wrong with hating snowbirds: Despising a neighbour who gets to play golf in Sedona while you suffer under 10 feet of snow is as Canadian as maple syrup. It’s why, when the federal government introduced quarantine measures that would disproportionately inconvenience returning snowbirds, an Ipsos Reid poll found widespread support for the action. Specifically, the new measures require incoming air travellers to stay at a government-sanctioned hotel for three days as they await a negative test for COVID-19.
But there is good reason to believe snowbird animosity may be unwittingly blinding us to some incredibly bad border policy. Below, Canada’s snowbird-enraging quarantine measures:
MANY SNOWBIRDS HAVE ALREADY GOT VACCINE
As Canada continues to languish in vaccination purgatory due to chronically late dose deliveries, a surprising number of expats have been able to get the shot in the United States. Florida, in particular, has been particularly liberal about who gets the vaccine, handing it out to anybody over age 65 who can prove even moderate residency, regardless of citizenship.
This has been controversial among full-time U.S. citizens, of course, but the end result is an entire cohort of Canadians who are vaccinated ahead of schedule and will not be relying on Ottawa for their Pfizer shots. The Pfizer vaccine, which most of these snowbirds are receiving, is 95 per cent effective. So while there may be concerns about unfamiliar COVID-19 variants being brought to Canada by returning travellers, in many cases snowbirds are one of the most Covid-19-resilient demographics we have.
CANADA DOES NOT CARE ABOUT THE VACCINATION STATUS OF INCOMING TRAVELLERS
There’s an argument to be made that Canadians who opted to spend the winter abroad and come back fully vaccinated will actually accelerate our drive to herd immunity. Their absence from the country definitively meant they weren’t an imposition on Canadian public health, and their vaccinated status means their risk of spreading the disease is vanishingly low.
Nevertheless, the federal government has decided to treat vaccination status as an entirely moot point in its border quarantine plan.
The U.S. is also ignoring the vaccination status of incoming travellers and requiring them to instead furnish a negative COVID-19 test. However, the Americans will let you in without a test if you can show proof of COVID-19 recovery.
Meanwhile, countries across Europe are beginning to open up their borders to any arrivals who can show proof of vaccine, with Poland being one of the first.
LOOPHOLES ARE MASSIVE AND EASILY CIRCUMVENTED
We’ve previously touted the example of New Zealand, which used quarantine measures to effectively make itself the most COVIDFREE nation on earth. But the Kiwis are uniquely uncompromising about their quarantine: With vanishingly few exceptions, everybody who enters the country must spend 14 days in government-supervised quarantine hotels.
You’re a New Zealand expat with terminal brain cancer who can’t get a quarantine spot in time to say goodbye to their family? Too bad; get in line.
Canada’s mandatory quarantine, by contrast, has loopholes big enough to drive a truck through — literally. According to the National Post’s Tom Blackwell, more than three-quarters of travellers entering Canada were already exempt from prior self-isolation requirements, despite federal claims that only a “limited number” are exempt. A proportion even larger than that will be exempt from mandatory hotel stays.
Most notably, anybody entering Canada at a land border is entirely exempt from a mandatory hotel stay, and need only furnish negative test results.
THE PROGRAM ALL BUT INCENTIVIZES DEFIANCE
When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau first introduced Canada’s policy of mandatory hotel quarantines in late January, he said it could be as much as $2,000 for a three-day stay.
Compare that to New Zealand, where two weeks of room and board at a quarantine hotel will cost the equivalent of only $2,860.
The actual cost has turned out to be as low as $1,300 in some Canadian hotels, but the end result is that incoming travellers are being asked to absorb what will likely be one of the most expensive hotel stays of their life.
One returning traveller, Richard Cardoso, told the Montreal Gazette that the cost of three days in a quarantine hotel is the equivalent of his living expenses for an entire month.
To circumvent the requirement, snowbirds rushed to return to Canada before the onset of mandatory hotel stays. Many others, meanwhile, are planning to sidestep the measure by simply driving home. “Common sense says, well, let’s do the path of least resistance, right? If I can save 4,000 bucks, why wouldn’t I do it?” Arizona snowbird Brian Cross told CBC last week.