When are the Canadian borders reopening?

Leisure travel across the U.S.-Canada border has been prohibited since March 2020. Those who cross must prove that they are crossing for essential reasons, test for COVID-19 in advance and quarantine for a minimum of 14 days upon arrival, regardless of vaccination status.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation last month that he would prefer to wait until 75% of the country is vaccinated before fully reopening the border, but his administration has been pressured to hash out a plan to reopen borders quicker than that.
Despite talk of an imminent change, Trudeau reiterated at a Tuesday press conference that border restrictions will be focused on the number of Canadian citizens who are fully vaccinated. One dose "is still an incomplete protection. We need people to get two doses of their vaccines," the prime minister said.

As of Friday, 56.8% of the Canadian population had received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and 5.7% had been fully vaccinated, according to the Canadian government's website. The Canadian government has approved the Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines.

Diodati said during the May 28 meeting, he was told the government was considering easing border restrictions after 75% of Canadians had at least one shot and 20% were fully vaccinated – a milestone that the government expects to reach by June 21.
Restrictions could ease further on July 21 as long as 75% of Canadians are fully vaccinated, Diodati added. Plans were not yet finalized during the meeting last month, but Diodati said the group also discussed the possibility of utilizing a vaccine passport.

"If that's what it takes to open things up, I'm OK with it," he said. "That kind of thing serves as a further incentive to encourage people to get both their shots."
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Windsor, Ontario Mayor Drew Dilkens, also present at the May 28 meeting, added that it "wasn't clear" exactly when or how restrictions would be eased.

"(Blair) described it as our government wanting to find symmetry with the U.S. on reopening, but it may not be possible," Dilkens said. "And so if the U.S. just does a full reopen, I would expect Canada will maintain some level of restriction on reentry with the easiest pathway to enter for those that are fully vaccinated."

Pressure to reopen the border

The U.S.-Canada border has been closed to nonessential travel, but there have been exceptions.
Earlier this week, the NHL received an exemption from Canadian health officials to allow cross-border travel for teams starting in the semifinal round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. The MLB is also trying to get the Toronto Blue Jays permission to reenter Canada; the team is currently playing in Buffalo, New York. Blue Jays president Mark Shapiro has said it's possible the team may return to Toronto at some point this season but cautioned that the decision would depend on the easing of border regulations.

If Canada does open its borders to more travelers this month, it would come just in time for the summer travel season. Diodati said Niagara Falls typically gets 14 million annual tourists, a quarter or who are American, and represent about half of the local tourism industry's revenue.

"We need the borders open," Diodati said. "We want to be ramping up so that certainly by the July 1, 4, long weekend, we want to have a lot of things up and running. … We lost a good deal of last year's tourism season. We cannot afford to lose this one. It's been devastating."

 

There was some insinuation on the news today saying for Canadians with double vaccination, we won't need to quarantine for the full 2 weeks, provided we have a negative covid test- but we have to be quarantined at home until the results are received. This means, I would have to take an extra day or two off, every time I want to cross the border. I do day trips to the US monthly at least (during nonCOVID) as I live on a border town.

we're getting closer, but the government needs to give us a goal to work towards to give us hope of that border opening. Its getting stupid here- every day the news opens with number of positive cases diagnosed across the country and across the province- just this weekend our restaurant patios will open (restaurants have been closed to both inside and outside dining for 2 months with only curbside/delivery available). All "non essential" retail has been closed for 2 months- by the way, our cannibis and beer stores have been open the whole way thru- and retail reopens this weekend too (at 15% capacity for nonessentials).

we can't gather in groups at our homes with more than 5 people...until this weekend when it goes up to 10 I believe.
Its fine, its fine. I just want to effin travel to the dragon already!

darcy

 

@darcyw Hope they open for DFR. Take a look at my Friday route and tell post over there with your thoughts. I've been doing crazy, long drives, since you guys aren't here to do them!!

 

Latest news is a soft opening on 25 July.

 

I heard July 20 so maybe it will happen this time.

 

Oh, we can cross the border now...however, we need to have double Vax (I am), and a negative COVID test taken within 72 hours of arriving at the border back home. Walgreens and CVS charge me $140 USD. Then we're tested once we cross the border into Canada.

we now have 75% single vax rate, and nearly 30% double vax rate.
I'm keeping my ear to the ground.

darcy

 

Would these home tests count?

https://www.walmart.com/ip/BinaxNOW-...E&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

Ontario is set to enter Stage 3 which is pretty much a full opening around the 3rd-4th week of July. We just entered Stage 2. I would think the border opening will correspond with Stage 3 as there is no Stage beyond 3. We reverted to a 3 stage system where Stage one was the most restrictive and Stage 3 should be fully open. Expecting it all to fall into place for 3rd-4th week of July.

 

I suspect that there is a huge percentage of US residents who don't realize that the US has similar restrictions. Don"t have a negative Covid test within 72 hours of return and you can't fly or return across the border. I think this is waived if you have official documentation of Covid recovery that is less than 3 months old. We don't have the vaccine requirement but we should IMO.

 

Currently, has to be PCR test IIRC.
darcy