CANADA-U.S. BORDER RESTRICTIONS TO STRETCH INTO JUNE
Non-essential travel restricted until June 21
WASHINGTON • Canada is already contemplating the measures it will take to safely end restrictions on international travel, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday as he confirmed the United States has agreed to extend the mutual ban on non-essential border crossings for another 30 days.
The ban, which prohibits discretionary travel like vacations and cross-border shopping without restricting trade, commerce and essential employees, was set to expire Thursday until the U.S. agreed to Canada’s request to extend it to June 21.
What might happen at that point remains an open question, but one the federal government is already thinking about, said Trudeau, who described the U.S. as a “source of vulnerability” when it comes to the risk of importing cases of COVID-19.
“We’ve given ourselves another month before we have to have the right answers to those questions on non-essential travel,” he said.
Ottawa continues to work with the provinces on developing those measures, which will be even more important “once we get to a point where non-essential travel picks up again in the coming — months, I guess,” he added.
The U.S. has more than 1.5 million active cases of COVID-19, 42 per cent of the world’s active caseload. Its death toll crossed the 90,000 threshold over the weekend, growing at a rate of more than 1,000 fatalities a day. But it is also barrelling headlong towards reopening, with an election-wary U.S. President Donald Trump leading the charge.
Asked about the border restrictions Tuesday during an event at the White House, Trump acknowledged the ongoing talks. “We’re very close to Canada,” he said, describing Trudeau as “a friend of ours.”
With the travel ban now moving into a third month, talk has turned toward what a reopening would look like — and Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer said it’s time the federal government was forthright with Canadians about its thinking.
“What we would like to see is a framework,” Scheer told a news conference Tuesday.
“I think it’s important for the government to explain what benchmarks we’re going to be looking for, what targets we’re going to be aiming to hit in order to ease some of these restrictions, and right now we’re not seeing a lot of that.”
Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public officer of health, said there’s an emerging consensus that mobility restrictions within Canada will need to be eased first to gauge the impact before the border can be reopened.