Canada can’t do away with COVID-19 tests for travellers just yet, Freeland says

WASHINGTON—Canada still can’t afford to take any chances when it comes to COVID-19, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said Thursday — and that includes requiring travellers to show a negative test result before entering the country.

Freeland happened to be in Washington this week for multilateral meetings with her fellow G7 and G20 finance ministers, as well as officials from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

Her visit overlapped with the news from U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration that fully vaccinated Canadian travellers would be once again allowed to drive across the border early next month.

The Biden administration’s rules don’t include requiring a recent COVID-19 test — unlike Canada, which made the sophisticated $200 tests a cornerstone of its strategy for easing its own border restrictions earlier this year.

Critics of the restrictions say requiring Canadians to submit to a costly test every time they return from visiting the U.S. remains a significant and unnecessary hurdle.

But even in the face of evidence that the latest wave of COVID-19 is on the wane, Freeland said the benefits of the test requirement vastly outweigh the risks of doing away with it.

“I had my tests done to go home this afternoon,” she told a news conference Thursday at the Canadian Embassy.

“When it comes to finishing the fight against COVID, the Canadian approach — which has been to follow science, to follow the recommendations of public health authorities, to err on the side of caution — has served us really, really well.”

Canada has spent more than $280 billion on supporting businesses and supplementing incomes, she added — to say nothing of the personal sacrifices and tragedies Canadians themselves have had to endure over the last 19 months.

“My priority is to finish the fight against COVID, to allow our economy to continue to reopen, to allow our kids to continue to go to school. And yes, that does mean we need to continue to be careful.”

The euphoria that followed Tuesday’s news that the U.S. would be easing its land-border restrictions quickly gave way to demands from business groups, tourism associations and ordinary travellers alike, all of them urging Ottawa to rethink the test requirement.

The U.S. Travel Association has estimated the Mexican and Canadian border closures have been costing American businesses $1.5 billion in travel exports — domestic spending by foreign visitors — every month.