OTTAWA—The federal government says it is continuing to defer to public health advice when it comes to scrapping COVID-19 vaccination mandates for air travelers — a measure critics claim is paralyzing Canada’s major airports.
“Our top priority throughout the pandemic has been to keep Canadians safe. We continue to take a layered approach to keeping travelers safe and crew safe, including with masking and vaccination requirements,” Transport Minister Omar Alghabra’s office said Tuesday in a statement to the Star.
“We will base any decisions on the latest public health advice to ensure the safety of our transportation sector.”
The statement came after Interim Conservative Leader Candice Bergen called on the government to “immediately remove” domestic and international restrictions she said have caused travel backlogs across the country.
“Anybody who’s traveling or wants to start traveling is pretty intimidated because of the massive lineups and the waits, and it makes traveling very unpleasant,” Bergen told reporters.
Indeed, Toronto’s embattled Pearson International Airport became the subject of a viral video Monday when former NHL star Ryan Whitney dubbed it “the worst airport on earth” after he experienced a series of flight delays, cancellations and long lines.
Ottawa continues to maintain it will only drop the rule requiring passengers to be fully vaccinated to board plans and trains when scientific guidance deems it appropriate.
“The reality is, as much as people would like to pretend we’re not, we’re still in a pandemic,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said last week after the government extended its pandemic border measures until at least June 30.
“I know people are eager to get back to things we love,” he said. “But what will also further damage our tourism industry is if we get another wave, if we get more serious impacts from COVID. That’s why every single time we have been anchored in science.”
Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, said in March that public health guidance was at a “very important juncture where we’re shifting the emphasis from requirements to recommendations.”
However, there have been no changes in the COVID-19 screening rules for air passengers since them, and pressure is now mounting for Ottawa to rethink its strategy ahead of an expected surge in summer travel.
“Our international passenger traffic is going to increase by 50 per cent. We’re going to see over 80,000 international arrivals a day at our hub airports, and we’re currently seeing 50,000,” warned Monette Pasher, interim president of the Canadian Airports Council.
“We need to be ready to facilitate those people through our facilities … and in order to do that, we need these public health measures removed.”
Major airports in the country are already contending with bottlenecks in processing international arrivals through Canadian customs, long wait times for departing travelers passing through security screenings and passengers being held in plans until there is space for them to enter airports.
Air travel groups have attributed the snarls to officials needing to review the information passengers submit through the ArriveCAN app, selecting travelers for random COVID-19 testing and checking proof of vaccination.
Those delays are on top of pandemic-induced staffing shortages, which the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA) says comes amid a “pent-up demand for air travel” despite a “significant number of layoffs throughout the aviation industry.”
So far, the government has directed most of its efforts toward addressing the staffing challenges, rather than re-examining the necessity of random testing and vaccination passports.
Ottawa has established working groups with CATSA, airlines and other agencies to tackle the issue, and has hired 400 new screening officers who are now undergoing an accelerated training program. It has also earmarked $330 million in supplementary funding for CATSA, with an expectation that the agency will return to pre-pandemic staffing levels by this summer.
But staffing is only apart of the crisis brewing in Canadian airports, Pasher told the Star.
Ending vaccination mandates “is needed to support our industry’s economic recovery in order to compete globally,” she said.
“We need to align ourselves with the international community … There’s over 50 countries that have already removed vaccine mandates and COVID protocols for travel.”
Eliminating random testing at airports and streamlining the use of the ArriveCAN app are other solutions, said Benjamin Barrocas, the International Air Transport Association’s country manager for Canada and the US
“We wish that the federal government would have moved a lot faster. Canada was one of the leading countries to remove the pre-departure testing on April 1. So the industry knew that once that was removed, that there would be pent-up demand wanting to fly into and from Canada,” Barrocas said.
“During … our weekly calls with Transport Canada, we understand that they’re working on exercises in terms of mapping and streamlining processes, but we really need help as soon as possible, particularly prior to the upcoming summer peak demand.”
It’s an issue that extends far beyond Pearson, Toronto Mayor John Tory told reporters Tuesday.
“This is the gateway to all of Canada,” he said.
“I’ve spoken to the CEO of the airport, I’ve spoken to two of the ministers in the federal government … We should all be sitting together at the table to resolve the issues at the airport and they should be resolved in a speedy fashion.”
JOIN THE CONVERSATION
Anyone can read Conversations, but to contribute, you should be a registered Torstar account holder. If you do not yet have a Torstar account, you can create one now (it is free)