Border Changes Could Come Any Day as Pressure Builds

Pressure is building for Canada to open its borders, and word could come in the next day or two.

Western Canadian premiers are pushing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to open the Canada-U.S. border soon, and the PM is expected to discuss the issue with all of Canada's premiers and territorial leaders today (June 7).

Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc said this week that changes at the border might take effect in July.

"This shouldn't be a surprise, because we've talked about potential measures that could be phased in at some point in July," Leblanc told reporters. "We may signal in the renewal of these (orders) some modest, phased-in adjustments at the border, but with a date fixed (by cabinet) to take effect. It doesn't have to take effect on the 21st of June…We'll have more to say in the coming days around a phased-in approach at the border."

"Before the 21st of June, we'll obviously have something to say around these measures being rolled over and look ahead to possible adjustments over time," he said.

The Buffalo News reports that the first phase of a border reopening might allow passage for families and for people who own property over the border.

The current US-Canada border closure order expires next Monday, June 21.

LeBlanc's comments came the same day that several provincial premiers from Western Canada demanded border changes be made as soon as possible, thus increasing the heat for some kind of announcement from Ottawa.

"Canadians need a coherent and comprehensive plan that reinforces the effectiveness and role of vaccines in the resumption of international travel," Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said in a letter to LeBlanc. "The vaccines are working. We call on the federal government to promptly develop a safe, science-based plan that will allow fully vaccinated individuals to resume international travel."

Published reports say Canadian and U.S. officials talked about the border issue earlier this week.

"There's absolute consensus that we want to get back as quickly as possible to whatever normal will be, but we also expect the federal government to be leading on that question," B.C. Premier John Horgan said the other day "Come Thursday, we expect the federal government to have a plan, and then we'll work on building a consensus around that."

"We should facilitate a safe reopening of the U.S. border as soon as we reasonably can. I'd like to see that happen early in July," Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said in a story published by Global News. "This (the closed border) is massively holding back our economy. What we see in the United States is that COVID does not pose a significant public health threat."

The federal government has said that Canadians could look forward to reduced health restrictions once 75% of adults have one dose of COVID-19 vaccine and 20% have two doses. That should happen in the next few days, but Canada's chief medical officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, said this week that the Delta variant wasn't included in that calculation and that the seriousness of the variant may require an adjustment in the 75/20 formula. Tam suggested having 75% of Canadians with both doses is the ideal situation, which likely wouldn't occur until late July, according to various estimates.

The federal government recently announced that fully vaccinated Canadian citizens and permanent residents returning home to Canada should soon be able to skip the mandatory hotel quarantine and 14-day home quarantine laws. Instead, they would have to take a test before arriving in Canada and another upon arrival, and then quarantine while waiting for the results from that second test. If the test is negative, they would be free to leave home.

Ottawa has said it hopes to have that plan in effect for early July. Critics have said the plan should include fully vaccinated people from other countries.

The National Post reports that government officials "are working on various logistical issues, including how to establish a digital vaccination certificate that would be accepted by border officials in other countries. Part of that includes securing agreements with provincial governments, LeBlanc said.

"The provinces, by virtue of their jurisdiction, have ownership of the health information, the vaccination information, regarding their citizens," the minister said. "The idea would be to find the best common, secure platform for Canadians who want to have proof of vaccination in the context of international travel…If there's a phased adjustment of border measures in July or later in August or so on, there may be a transitional measure. But we'll have more to say about that in the coming weeks."

Perrin Beatty, CEO of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, said Canadians shouldn't have to wait until next week to find out what's happening with the border.

"There should be a clear, coherent plan with well understood criteria for what are the conditions under which the border will be reopened, and how will it be staged," he said.

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