The Canadian government is reestablishing mandatory testing for air travellers in an unexpected move that will affect both domestic flyers and visitors to the country.
The Public Health Agency of Canada said Thursday that after pausing mandatory random testing for those entering Canada by air on June 11, testing would resume as of July 19 for travellers who qualify as fully vaccinated and arrive in Canada by air to the four major Canadian airports: Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and Toronto.
With congestion at airports a pressing issue, the government said all testing for air travellers would be done outside of airports, either via an in-person appointment at testing locations and pharmacies or a virtual appointment for a self-swab test.
"As we have said all along, Canada's border measures will remain flexible and adaptable, guided by science and prudence. We need to keep border testing measures in place because that is how we track importation of the COVID-19 virus and of new variants of concern. We will keep adapting our border measures to balance the need to protect Canadians while supporting our economic recovery," said Jean-Yves Duclos, the minister of health, in a statement.
Tourism officials have been pushing the government hard to ditch the ArriveCan app, which requires travellers to fill out an online questionnaire before entering the country, and were caught off guard by the new border tightening.
"It defies all logic," said Lyle Hall, a longtime tourism industry veteran, in an interview. "There are Canadians returning home [from abroad], but, wearing my tourism hat, what tourist will want to go through this nonsense? It's crazy."
Air travellers who qualify as fully vaccinated and selected for mandatory random testing and travellers who do not qualify as fully vaccinated will receive an email notification within 15 minutes of completing their customs declaration. A positive result will require 10 days of isolation.
The government also reaffirmed all travellers must continue to use ArriveCAN to provide mandatory travel information within 72 hours before they arrive in Canada. Ottawa said 95% of travellers arriving by land and air combined comply.
"This came completely out of the blue," said Hall. The various tourism ministry officials at the national and provincial associations have been pounding the table to get rid of ArriveCan. Getting Americans across the border even in a car is challenging because it is difficult to figure out how to navigate the programs. "And now you add this layer on."
Melissa Lantsman, a member of Parliament for the opposition Conservative Party of Canada, lashed out at the change on Twitter.
"There was no science shared to test fully vaccinated air travellers at airports. There was no science shared to pause the testing. There has been no science shared about re-establishing mandatory random testing offsite of airports for air travellers," said Lantsman.
Laura Baxter, director of hospitality analytics in Canada for CoStar, said resuming random testing requirements will add to the confusion about whether Canada's travel economy is open for business or not.
"This will only have a negative impact on inbound international travel, which was only starting to rebound," Baxter said. "Inbound travel from the US is only at 48% of 2019 levels, so there is a huge opportunity for hoteliers to benefit from more international visitation. With more hassle in crossing the border, inbound international travellers may choose to go elsewhere. Unfortunately, the impact will be felt in our major urban centres, which have only recently seen performance metrics improve."