Temporary foreign workers exempt from new travel rules
Temporary foreign workers won’t be subject to the new travel restrictions announced Friday by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Canadians returning from international destinations will be required to take a COVID-19 test upon arriving in Canada and will have to quarantine at their own expense at a designated hotel for three days until the results are in, Trudeau announced.
Those with negative test results will be able to quarantine for the rest of the mandatory two weeks at home, while those with positive tests will isolate in designated government facilities.
Temporary foreign workers, such as those who come to work on Okanagan farms, will be exempt from some of the new rules imposed on Friday, a spokesman for federal agriculture minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said.
The farmworkers will be required to get a COVID test before leaving their own country, but won’t have take another test and hole up in a hotel upon reaching Canada, Bibeau’s office said.
They can go directly to their farms, where they will have to quarantine for 14 days, like last year.
The new restrictions allow international flights to arrive at just four designated airports, but those landing restrictions won’t apply to the incoming workers, Bibeau’s office said.
While major airlines have announced they’re suspending international flights, the agriculture department is working with the federal transport department to get the foreign workers here.