Canada led the way in opening its land border with the U.S. unilaterally in AUG. But now that the U.S. is preparing to follow suit months later and re-open its border with Canada on an as-yet-unspecified date in NOV, some American politicians are pressuring Canada to ease up even more on entry restrictions.
The issue isn’t vaccination. The White House has already made it clear that its land border re-opening will apply to fully vaccinated Canadians, just as Canada now permits fully vaccinated Americans to enter the country without quarantine. (Although there remain uncertainties about Canadians with mixed vaccinations, which both countries say they are in the process of discussing.)
The new point of contention is about testing.
PCR v. Antigen Tests
To enter Canada by air, land or water without being required to quarantine, arrivals - Canadians, Americans and international travellers - must present a negative PCR test taken within 72 hours of departure. PCR tests are more difficult to access, take longer to process, and are considerably more expensive, compared to antigen tests.
Canada does not accept antigen tests for border arrivals, but currently, Americans returning to the U.S. by air must only present negative antigen tests.
Versus No Tests At All
Now, CBC reports that American officials have confirmed that when the land border does reopen sometime next month, fully vaccinated arrivals will not require any negative test at all to enter the country by land.
And while the land border re-opening hasn’t even happened yet, the issue of differing testing requirements is already fodder for some U.S. politicians to pressure Ottawa to reciprocate and drop - not just inconvenient and expensive PCR testing requirements - but testing requirements altogether.
One of this bipartisan group of American lawmakers is New York Member of Congress Brian Higgins, who says that testing of any type will hinder the return to travel.
"Testing is redundant (to proof of full vaccination)," he said. "It will lead to a lot of Canadians that will be reluctant to come into the United States … There's a cost associated with that. It's also an additional administrative step that I think is unnecessary."
Border states in particular have been missing cross-border, daytripping, shopping Canadians. With the holiday shopping season just weeks away from beginning in earnest, officials in those states fear that Canadians will not return again this year for holiday shopping if they have to find, book and pay reportedly over USD $100 per person to get a private PCR test to re-enter Canada.
Congressman Higgins says he and other members are writing to Canada’s Prime Minister and other key ministers to urge Ottawa to set aside testing requirements to enter or re-enter Canada.
So far, Canada’s not budging.
Public Safety Minister Bill Blair noted that Canadians making day- or short trips to the U.S. could potentially get tested in Canada before their departure to the U.S., as the government accepts negative PCR tests that are taken up to 72 hours prior to a traveller presenting at the border on their return to Canada.
Comments to the story on the CBC’s site were overwhelmingly in favour of Canada retaining testing requirements. Many noted in particular doubts about fraudulent vaccine certification being presented by arrivals, with a negative test result being considered a necessary backup to proof of vaccination.
