Vaccinated Canadians can reenter after short trips without testing

Folks in Calais might see more Canadian license plates after November 30. On that date, the government of Canada plans to lift the requirement that fully-vaccinated Canadians take molecular tests for COVID 19 before re entering the country on their way back from trips to the United States, provided that they return within 72 hours.
This change applies to Canadian citizens, permanent residents and people registered under the Indian Act, and only for trips originating in Canada, according to the official announcement on November 19. Fully-vaccinated Canadians taking longer trips to the U.S. and fully-vaccinated Americans visiting Canada will still need negative results from molecular tests within the previous 72 hours.
"This is only for Canadians and permanent residents in Canada to visit the United States for under 72 hours and then return home. This does not include Maine residents that might want to come to Canada to visit their friends or family, and it should," says New Brunswick Southwest MP John Williamson.
All other rules in place since August 9, when Canada reopened its land border to nonessential travel, will still apply after November 30 regardless of the length of the stay in the U.S. This means that fully vaccinated Canadians planning to go to the U.S. will need to preregister online through the federal government's ArriveCAN app and the New Brunswick Travel Registration program. Also, upon return they must show proof of vaccination. Failure to do so would result in the traveller having to quarantine for 14 days.
Still, Williamson and St. Stephen Mayor Allan MacEachern both say this step will allow family members and friends who have not seen each other in person since March of 2020 to finally get together.
"There are hundreds and hundreds of people who have not seen family members in the last 20 months, and I've spoken to them and some are despondent about this. They are not angry, necessarily, but there is a sense that families have to be reunited for everyone's mental health and well being, and at times during COVID 19 I think governments have forgotten that," Williamson says.
"There are a lot of people in that category, a lot of people," MacEachern says. He feels that St. Stephen residents should be able to visit family and friends in Calais and return home safely. "We could still go over there, be careful, just like we're doing here, and it should be fine," he says, questioning why visiting someone in Calais should pose any more danger than visiting someone in St. Stephen.
Canada and the U.S. closed the border to nonessential travel in March 2020, hoping to stop COVID 19 from spreading. Canada reopened the border to nonessential travel from the U.S. on August 9, 2021, but visitors have to register their travel plans, show proof of full vaccination and molecular tests with negative results for COVID 19 within 72 hours of entering Canada. Those rules applied to Canadians returning home as well as American visitors.
The U.S. lifted its restrictions on nonessential travel on November 8 with no requirement that Canadian visitors get tested for COVID 19, but the requirement for a molecular test for COVID 19 to return home made short runs across the border especially impractical for Canadians.
The current rules allow fully-vaccinated Canadians to get tested in Canada before crossing to the United States, provided they return within 72 hours. This might be easier for Canadians planning short trips across the border, rather than try to get tested in Calais, for example, but Williamson and MacEachern both question the rationale.
"It didn't make any sense. As you know, when residents in Charlotte County could go to the local hospital, get a PCR test, then cross into Maine, stay there for up to three days and use those test results to come home, this information wasn't telling border officials anything that was helpful and was costly and bureaucratic and was keeping family and loved ones separated needlessly," Williamson says.
"It doesn't make any sense the way they have it set up right now. I get tested and go to Calais and come back after I have been tested, doesn't make any sense. It's not doing anything. It's not preventing anything. It's testing me before I go and not after I come back," he says. "It benefits where you're going," he adds.
Williamson suggests that testing could be done on a random basis at the border using antigen rapid tests, but he and MacEachern question the need for testing at all for fully-vaccinated Americans or Canadians returning home. They look forward to lifting testing requirements at the border for fully-vaccinated Canadians and Americans regardless of how long they have been away or plan to stay.
Congressman Brian Higgins, representing a border district in western New York State, supports the move to end testing requirements for short visits and agrees with Williamson that the two countries should coordinate their border rules.
Higgins states on his website that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told a bipartisan group of House of Representatives members on November 17 that Canada would change testing requirements in three phases, starting with eliminating testing for fully-vaccinated Canadians. Changes to the rules for fully-vaccinated American travellers and to others would come later, according to the statement on Higgins' website.
Williamson calls it "not acceptable" that Canada's prime minister made these statements to members of the U.S. Congress before announcing it in his own country. Williamson welcomed the reopening of Parliament on November 22, providing a forum for MPs to raise questions and hold the government to account.
The COVID 19 delta variant continues to bedevil New Brunswick's efforts to bring the pandemic under control. The province reported 62 new cases but only 55 recoveries on November 22, leaving the total of active cases at 647, including 122 in Zone 2, which includes Charlotte County. As of that date, the province reported that 87.5% of eligible people -- 77.2% of total population -- were fully vaccinated with two shots. The province reported that 93.4% of eligible people -- 82.4% of total population -- had at least one shot.
New Brunswick has started to deliver third dose booster shots. The provincial government announced on November 22 that the first shipment of Pfizer BioNTech Comirnaty COVID 19 vaccine for children ages five to 11 would arrive the following day and the first shots delivered before the end of the week through regional health authority community clinics and participating pharmacies.
About 54,500 children will be eligible to receive this vaccine. This will raise the total number of New Brunswickers eligible for vaccination to about 750,500, about 95% of the total population.