According to just-released federal government statistics, the number of land border arrivals into Canada more than doubled following the reopening of the border to Americans for non-essential travel.
Ottawa says that 218,732 non-commercial travellers entered Canada by land between 09-15AUG. That number, which includes both Canadian and American travellers, was up by 111 per cent compared to the week before, when Americans were still denied entry for non-essential travel.
It was also a nearly 200 per cent increased compared to the 74,562 people who crossed the border in the same week in 2020.
However, the CBC notes these numbers are still well below the 1.4m travellers who entered Canada in the same week in 2019.
Land Border Performance
Including commercial drivers who have been allowed into Canada throughout the pandemic, 332,582 people in total crossed the border.
Ontario accounted for 206,783 of travellers entering from the U.S., up by 54 per cent compared to the previous week. The amount of "foreign nationals" entering the region nearly tripled to 95,573 from 32,520 in the same period.
Canada's Pacific region had the next largest number of arrivals, rising 79 per cent from 29,530 to 52,875. Foreign nationals nearly tripled in this region as well to 32,296 from 12,038.
But the biggest percentage increase in travellers was in the Atlantic region, where traffic rose by 89 per cent, from 8,282 to 15,711 arrivals. Here, foreign national arrivals more than tripled to 9,730 from 3,048.
In Quebec, arrivals rose 66.4 per cent from 20,278 to 33,758, while the number of non-Canadian arrivals nearly tripled to 17,990 from 6,260.
The region that saw the smallest percentage increase was the Prairies, up by 31.6 per cent to 23,454 from 17,819. However, the number of foreign nationals arriving in this region still nearly doubled to 10,471 from 5,830.
Air Performance
More statistics from the Canadian government also showed that the number of people flying into Canada also grew, from 138,257 the week before the border reopening to 179,939 arrivals the week after, but at a slightly smaller increase at 30 per cent overall. However, the number of foreign nationals arriving by air was up 67 per cent to 70,723. In the same week in 2020, 46,506 people flew into Canada compared to 783,790 the same week in 2019.
09-15AUG was the first week since fully vaccinated Americans were able to enter Canada for non-essential purposes from 09AUG.
Fully vaccinated travellers are allowed to enter Canada from other countries on 07SEP 2021.
Is Toronto Pearson International Airport equipped to take on a surge in passengers arriving internationally?
I arrived from an international destination on the 14th of August and the whole aircraft was not allowed to disembark for 4 hours and 15 minutes due to Customs delays. (I won’t comment on the hundreds of bags in the baggage area placed anywhere and everywhere – try rummaging through that to find your baggage.)
It would be embarrassing to have foreigners arriving in Canada and experiencing something that should not happen in this country.
Perhaps Open Jaw should interview a decision maker at the GTAA to find how they are planning to streamline processing passengers through the airport.