Mutual travel restrictions between the Canada and U.S. border are set to expire 21JUL - but American politicians and the U.S. travel trade aren’t willing to wait even that long.
At the same time, the Canadian government and health officials seem set on keeping the border closed even longer.
On Wednesday, a group of two dozen U.S. travel trade organizations demanded their government reopen to international travel within the next two weeks.
It wants to follow the model of restricting travel only from countries with very high risk. Canada is in the group of countries it wants to let in.
On a media call, as reported by Business Travel News, the group says that American travel restrictions to this country, as well as the U.K. and EU, “is costing the U.S. economy about $1.5 billion in spending each week.”
"The health risk is becoming more minimal, but the economic cost of doing nothing is staggering," U.S. Travel Association president and CEO Roger Dow said on the call.
Their message is echoed by a growing list of U.S. lawmakers.
Also on Wednesday a group of over 75 members of Congress issued a three-page letter calling on U.S. President Joe Biden to end American travel restrictions with Canada.
Border state Michigan’s House representative Bill Huizenga authored the letter, which had signatories from both parties.
“More than 59 per cent of the Canadian population has received at least one dose of the vaccine and the number of fully vaccinated Canadians is expected to increase rapidly as vaccine supply grows over the coming weeks,” Huizenga said in his letter, which also acknowledged Canada’s own expert health panel that recommended updated travel restrictions based on vaccination and immunity, not country of origin of arrivals at the border.
“Both governments should follow the science and drop all travel restrictions for travellers between the United States and Canada who are fully vaccinated travellers or provide proof of a negative PCR test,” Huizenga added in the letter.
He also noted that if the border remains closed, “the U.S. is projected to lose 1.1 million jobs and an additional US$175 billion by the end of this year.” The letter appealed for a safely-opened border to “jumpstart our nation’s economic recovery, restore American jobs and reconnect our country to the world.”
While Huizenga’s letter simply asked that travel restrictions be lifted “soon,” the American travel trade coalition wants the U.S. to ease restrictions by 15JUL - that’s just one week away.
Meanwhile, North of the Border…
It appears that not only will Canada not agree to an early re-opening of the border before the 21JUL expiry date - it is likely to be extended.
While Canadian travel and other businesses, as well as many border towns, echo their American counterparts’ calls for the border to re-open safely, they don’t seem to be getting much support from politicians or health officials.
The only concrete step Canada has taken to re-opening the border came at midnight Monday, when fully-vaccinated Canadians became exempt from hotel and 14-day quarantines as well as Day 8 testing.
That is Ottawa’s so-called first Phase of a multi-phase re-opening, but the government has not revealed the terms or conditions - or timeline - of future phases.
In addition, just days after Open Jaw reported that the Canadian Tourism Roundtable, joined by the mayor of Niagara Falls and the head of Niagara Falls Tourism, issued yet another call to action for the federal government to issue a comprehensive reopening plan to re-open the border soon, the acting medical officer of health in the Niagara region announced he wants the border to remain closed until the fall.
CBC quotes Dr. Mustafa Hirji saying, “I expect, probably, we need another two or three months before we're at the stage where we've maxed out our vaccinations, and we would be at a stage where we could reopen and not have to worry about the delta variant overwhelming us," he said.
The divide has had some observers warning of an ‘asymetrical’ re-opening of the border, where we may see Canadians welcome in the U.S. weeks or even months before Americans can bring their tourist dollars north.
