Later this week, the federal government's "pause" of several COVID-19 restrictions relating to testing expires. The industry leaders that make up the Canadian Travel & Tourism Roundtable say it is critical that the restrictions do not return.
"The Roundtable calls on the federal government to follow the overwhelming science and evidence and further lift COVID-19 restrictions plaguing Canada's tourism sector and negatively impacting Canadian and international passengers," the group says in a statement.
Three weeks ago, to aid the flow of passengers at 'Canada's airports, the federal government announced a pause on Mandatory Random Testing through to June 30. The Roundtable maintains that removing the entire testing process from airports will ease the passenger experience, particularly once staffing issues with third-party agencies have been dealt with.
Specifically, the Roundtable is advocating for:
-- Removing COVID-19 testing out of the travel environment and consider other ways to assess community spread, such as community wastewater testing for tracking future variants.
-- Permanently lifting the vaccine requirement for travel for both domestic and international travellers in addition to workers in the sector.
-- Streamlining the ArriveCan application and using it solely as a pre-entry declaration system to digitize border processing.
"Leftover COVID-19 measures negatively impact the passenger experience at Canada's border and limit the sector's ability to recover after more than two years of shutdowns and restrictions," the Roundtable states.
"As the government looks to rebuild the Canadian economy and protect the health and safety of Canadians, there are no scientific reasons that the travel economy should be treated differently than any other sector, as confirmed by officials at the Public Health Agency of Canada."
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