Truckers and major airlines across the country joined the official opposition on Saturday in criticizing the Trudeau government’s new public health rules that will apply to international travelers, rules that were announced on Friday.

One of the new rule changes would eliminate the requirement for a molecular test for COVID-19 for fully vaccinated Canadians returning from a stay of three days or less, but keep the testing requirement in place for returning Canadians longer stay and for all foreign nationals, including Americans, arriving in Canada.

“By focusing only on short trips and Canadian travelers, the government has taken a piecemeal approach that is neither justified nor based on science,” said Canadian Airlines Council CEO Peter McNaney in a statement. “To our knowledge, no other country in the world has taken such a narrow approach. “

Airlines, along with other industry lobby groups such as the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, believe the requirement for a molecular test should be eliminated for all fully vaccinated travelers. On this point, these industrial groups will have an ally in the official opposition who should put pressure on the government on the new rules when the new legislature opens next week.

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Canada drops negative PCR test requirement for short trips

“It’s a half measure, and I think it’s confusing, and I think the Prime Minister should start listening to his own expert advisory group, which has not once said that a traveler unvaccinated needed a PCR test to enter Canada, ”said Melissa Lantsman, Conservative MP for Thornhill, Ont., and her party’s transportation critic.

“Abandoning the PCR test is where we need to go. We have to do it for our economy. We must do this to align with our allies. “

Although Canadians traveling to the United States must be fully immunized, they do not need a molecular test. Americans who come to Canada, however, need this test. When U.S. lawmakers met in Washington, DC last week with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and members of his cabinet, Americans called for changes to border rules that would make it easier to travel across borders to help jump-start economies in the border towns in Canada and the United States

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The expected influx of Canadians using the land crossing to U.S. border towns did not materialize

Another rule change, set to take effect on January 15, would require everyone who is now exempt from numerous border regulatory requirements to be fully vaccinated. This group includes, for example, professional athletes, but would also include essential workers like truck drivers.

Stephen Laskowski, CEO of the Canadian Trucking Alliance, said if Ottawa insisted on implementing a vaccination mandate early in the new year, up to 20 percent of the 120,000 Canadian truckers on international routes would quit. .

The industry is already short of 18,000 drivers, Laskowski said, and anything like a vaccination warrant worsens the job situation will only worsen supply chains and drive up consumer prices.

Additionally, Laskowski argues that truck drivers pose a relatively low threat to public health given that the profession is characterized by working alone.

“What we’ve discovered over the past two years is that truck driving as a profession is well below the national or local rate of contracting COVID-19,” Laskowski said. “So the risks are low for truck drivers. “

As he announced the new rules on Friday, Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos pledged the government would monitor rule changes on COVID-19 infection rates in Canada and be ready to adjust if necessary.

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Traffic at Coutts border crossing slows considerably

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