Restrictions at border to remain in place until end of July

OTTAWA — Travel restrictions at the Canada-u.s. border will remain in place for at least another month to prevent a fourth wave of COVID-19, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday, even as he acknowledged growing frustration with how the issue was being managed.

The measures at the border to limit non-essential international travel have been in place since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, with the latest extension set to expire on Monday.

On Friday morning, the measures got another one-month extension until July 21.

Pressure to relax the restrictions has been building from businesses and politicians on both sides of the border as vaccination rates climb in Canada.

Trudeau said that it would take 75 per cent of Canadians getting a first dose and 20 per cent receiving a second before rules can be loosened.

He said he understood impatience from the tourism industry and Canadians who want to travel, but the government didn’t want to risk another flare-up of COVID-19.

“If we are able to avoid more outbreaks like we’ve seen in some places across the country, even recently, by delaying a little bit more by keeping people safe — so we’re not seeing more people in hospitals and more people and more families losing loved ones — then that’s the right decision,” Trudeau said.

Perrin Beatty, president of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, said the policy should be based on whether a traveller is vaccinated, not on nationality. He noted how France now allows Canadians and Americans to visit, which makes it easier to travel abroad than within this country and to our closest neighbour.

“We are the deer caught in the headlights, unable to move,” Beatty said in an interview. “What the government is doing flies in the face of science, of economics and good public policy.”