Mayor of Windsor Glad First Day PCR Test Requirement Removed at Border

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After months of cross-border personal travel being an overwhelming procedure, many local residents are taking advantage of the official easing of the COVID-19 molecular test requirements for short trips outside of Canada, and you can count the Mayor of Windsor among those travelers.

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“Today is a good day. There is a path available, ”Mayor Drew Dilkens said Tuesday, the first day that Canadians do not need to submit polymerase chain reaction (PCR) results upon return to the country, if its time beyond the border was less than 72 hours.

“For the better part of 20 months, the people of Windsor have had trouble disconnecting from friends and loved ones,” Dilkens said. “I know so many families, including mine, who were separated for the longest time in their history.”

The mayor said he has now made plans to spend time in Michigan this weekend to attend his nephew’s wedding.

“My brother lives in Michigan,” Dilkens explained. “My family’s situation is probably pretty typical of many here in Windsor … She was married in Michigan, has lived there for 30 years and has two children.”

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“Last summer my niece got married. My mom and dad wanted to attend the wedding, but the Windsor airport was closed and they couldn’t cross the land border. So they had to drive to Toronto, fly to Montreal, and fly from there to Detroit. It was $ 1,200 and a total of eight hours. “

By comparison, Dilkens anticipates a relatively quick and easy road trip to attend the family reunion next weekend.

“Living in a border city, we have these deep relationships on both sides, built on proximity and geography,” the mayor said.

“For many, when there was a funeral, the birth of a grandchild, a sick parent or a wedding, all these life events, it has been difficult to be apart.”

But it has taken a lot of discussion in the upper government to reach the current level of reopening of the border.

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Dilkens was one of several border city leaders who lobbied the federal government in recent months to remove the costly requirement for the PCR test, pointing to its lack of justification in scenarios that frequently occur in communities like Windsor.

“I think (the federal government) saw the inconsistency with their previous approach,” Dilkens said. “You could take a CRP test in Canada before you go to the US and use the test when you return as an indicator of what happened when you were away.”

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“I think any sensible person would look at that and say it just doesn’t work.”

The Canadian government finally announced two weeks ago that the test requirement for short trips outside the country (72 hours or less) would end on November 30.

However, at the same time, the federal government announced greater stringency regarding vaccination status. As of Tuesday, all travelers entering Canada must be fully vaccinated, whether arriving by land, rail, air, or ocean ship.

And as of January 15, many exemptions, such as essential service providers, athletes, temporary foreign workers, and international students, will no longer apply.

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While Dilkens is glad that cross-border travel is getting easier, he emphasized the need for COVID-19 surveillance.

“Michigan has one of the highest rates of COVID infection in the entire United States,” the mayor noted. “Traveling is not without risks. But that risk can be managed with their behavior. “

And the most important aspect of COVID risk management is vaccination. Dilkens predicted that there will be more and more “trigger points” in the coming months where remaining unvaccinated will simply be too inconvenient and limiting to be practical.

“At some point, we will identify many of the people who are atypical right now by virtue of the fact that they will want to live their lives, and it will be difficult for them to do many of the things that everyone enjoys.”

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Despite the gibberish that people like his own parents went through to cross the border before Tuesday, Dilkens is not frustrated with the federal government and its continued restrictions.

While Dilkens acknowledged that the government’s response to the pandemic has been, on multiple levels, “imperfect,” he believes the ultimate intention has always been to protect people.

“Listen, everyone is trying to do the best they can,” Dilkens said. “This was a very clear decision for us at the border … But I also recognize that, at the federal level, there are sometimes different considerations in different parts of the country.”

“The federal government has to manage all these problems.”

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