A good idea that comes too late

It's important to always give credit when and where it's due. The Trudeau government's decision to impose mandatory quarantine in hotels for people entering Canada, at their own expense, is entirely correct. It should have been done a long, long time ago, and whatever benefit we might realize from the effort will be dampened by our foot-dragging.

But still. Firming up the border will provide a deterrent for those considering non-essential travel abroad, contribute to slight but real reductions in community spread, and will also provide us some extra defence against emerging variants of COVID-19. It's not clear how much defence it will provide, to be sure — it's possible any as yet unknown variant strains of concern are already here. But we don't know that, and it's better erring on the side of caution.

Further, this is a good step because it's a small but meaningful measure to check what is believed to be a small but meaningful contributor to the pandemic. The horse has left the barn in terms of the original strains, of course, but it was always strange to be pursuing highly restrictive policies at home while leaving our airports largely wide open. Requiring those entering Canada to quarantine in a hotel for three days, at their expense, will not be a major contributor in controlling the pandemic in Canada, but it will also not require any major outlays by the government.

The prime minister said on Friday that the cost to individuals will be $2,000, and that will cover the hotel stay, plus a test to confirm that the arrival is not carrying COVID. After a negative result, they may leave to complete their quarantine at home, though they will be subject to as-yet-unspecified enhanced monitoring. It's a small but smart step to address a small but real problem.

What's not to like? Smart, proportional, affordable, and, based on the experiences of other countries abroad, effective.

The above is entirely sincere. This is good news and should be treated as such. But it's still frustrating, because every argument the Liberals trotted out to explain their decision would have applied many, many months ago.

The entire pandemic has been a fascinating case study between two duelling realities: modest but early action is preferable to late and heavy-handed measures (does anyone dispute this?), but it's also hard to rally much public support for disruptive actions until the need is obvious. This is a major problem when trying to head off any crises before they become crises, and Canada is particularly bad at this.

As my colleague Chris Selley has so correctly noted, Canadian politicians fear being accused of overreaction more than almost anything else. More, it would seem, than they fear 20,000 dead and scenes of absolute horror in our long-term-care homes, for instance, not to mention a devastated economy.

Tightening controls at the border isn't a silver bullet, especially now, so deep into the pandemic. But it is a good idea, and it always was a good idea, and could have made a big difference if we'd done it earlier. Canada does not have the favourable geography of some of the other countries that have enjoyed greater success against COVID-19. (Which is to say, we are not remote, sparsely populated (at least not everywhere), an island, or some combination of some or all of those things.) Further, our land border with the U.S. has remained open for essential supplies — an economic and, frankly, existential necessity.

There's not a ton we can do about that — but that's no reason not to do what we can, elsewhere. Combining a mandatory quarantine with a test for those entering Canada is a reasonable, modest step that will provide reasonable, modest benefits, and it's utterly bizarre that it took 11 months and a whole lot of rabble-rousing by Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who has good reason to distract from major failures in his own government's response, to get us here.

It's probably too late to matter much this time, but with luck, it will help establish a precedent for the future, should we have the misfortune of finding ourselves in a similar place again, perhaps against a much nastier bug than COVID-19. All Canadians should join me in offering the prime minister and his government an entirely sincere if lukewarm, “Well, thanks, Prime Minister. Better late than never.”