Border officials call for health screening support
Customs agents’ union urges more staff for tests when travel rules ease up
OTTAWA— Even as Canada and the U.S. continue to strictly limit cross-border travel, the union representing Canadian border officials say they need more support to effectively screen travellers for COVID-19.
And that need could only grow, as Canadian officials prepare for an “inevitable” increase in traffic as the two countries slowly begin to reopen their economies.
The ability to screen travellers is a key component for countries thinking about easing border restrictions as COVID-19 continues to spread, and public health officials have been stationed at major airports to assist with screening travellers.
But along the Canada-U.S. border, where only essential travel is allowed, anyone exhibiting COVID-like symptoms is screened by health officials over the phone.
“My understanding is there’s not a sufficient number of officers at Health Canada and (the Public Health Agency of Canada) to be on site. Apparently there are only a handful in Canada of those experts,” said JeanPierre Fortin, the head of the Customs and Immigration Union, i n an interview
Wednesday.
“It’s still a problem. At airports, if you would open up (for international travel), I don’t have any signal that Health Canada could be on site with a sufficient amount of bodies. We’ve been asking, even at land border (crossings), to have PHAC (Public Health Agency of Canada) officers on site. They’re still not there.”
Health Minister Patty Hajdu’s office could not immediately say how many public health officials have been committed to helping border officials screen travellers in person. But a spokesperson for Hajdu called the over-the-phone assessments at land borders an “effective and efficient use of resources.”
A spokesperson for Public Safety Minister Bill Blair, who is responsible for the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), said that nearly 600,000 travellers have been assessed at land border crossings since the pandemic began. Approximately 40,000 of those travellers have been ordered to self-isolate for 14 days upon reaching the country.
“There are now over 180 individuals in quarantine sites across the country as a result of not having an adequate plan to self-isolate at home,” Mary-Liz Power wrote in a statement.
“As we’ve said from the beginning, our government, in collaboration with CBSA and (PHAC), is considering all options to keep Canadians safe.”
Steven Hoffman, a York University professor specializing in global health and law, said overthe-phone assessments are likely an effective way to screen travellers.
“All the public health official would have to do on the telephone is ask a series of questions, and follow an algorithm that would end up referring anyone further to an in-person medical professional,” Hoffman said in an interview.
Hoffman said the mandatory 14-day quarantine for all travellers entering Canada — COVID symptoms or no — provides another layer of protection. In fact, he argued that border restrictions may not be required at all — so long as people are forced to quarantine and officials can enforce that rule.
But Canadian premiers whose provinces border U.S. states with severe COVID-19 outbreaks — including Ontario Premier Doug Ford and B.C. Premier John Horgan — have urged the federal government against relaxing cross-border travel restrictions.
Those restrictions are expected to remain in place until at least June 21. When asked about the border Wednesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters that “right now we’re making decisions for right now.”
“But every step of the way in this unprecedented situation we’re reacting and responding to the realities we see now,” Trudeau said.
A federal official with knowledge of the file, but not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, told the Star Wednesday there are already conversations being had within the Liberal government on increased precautions at the border — including supply of personal protective equipment for frontline workers, as well as support for health screening.
But the official cautioned the two countries are a long way off from relaxing border restrictions. Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland and Blair have taken lead roles in the border discussions with U.S. officials at the Department of Homeland Security and the White House.
Speaking to reporters Monday, Freeland said that the border measures to date have been effective, but that “inevitably” as the economy opens up “we will see more travel across the border.”
“We’ll see more Canadians choosing to go back and forth and we’ll see more business activity, which will mean more essential travel. And that does mean that the federal government will need to do even more at all of our borders to keep Canadians safe … that is something that we are working on right now and we’re very focused on,” Freeland said.