Travellers from COVID-19 hot spot countries entering Canada through loopholes: Ontario government

The Ontario government says the federal government’s move to halt all flights from hot spots like India and Pakistan is not enough, especially now that travellers from those areas have found loopholes that allow them to still enter the country.

“We’re calling on the federal government to enact stricter measures to control non-essential air travel into and out of the province and the country,” Prabmeet Sarkaria, Ontario’s associate minister of small business and red tape reduction, told CityNews Ottawa. “We can’t put this pandemic behind us if we can’t get ahead of these variants — and we really need more action now.”

According to Sarkaria, travellers from those countries are still able to enter federal airports, like Toronto, through connecting flights, or by flying into the U.S. (like to Buffalo or Michigan) and finding other ways to cross the Canada-U.S. land border.

This also helps travellers skip the hotel quarantine, which has become essential for all travellers to do when coming into Canada.

Sarkaria said that Premier Doug Ford and Quebec Premier Francois Legault have teamed up and written a letter to the federal government, urging tougher restrictions for hot spot countries because what has been enacted so far is simply “not enough.”

“[The federal government has] dragged their heels on enacting a ban in the two hot spot countries — and we now have confirmed cases [of the variant from India] not only in Ontario, but in Quebec and B.C.,” he said. “Given our ICU capacity is being stretched to the limit due to these new variants, we’ve been calling for tougher border restrictions since last year to avoid this exact situation.”

And that means tougher measures at Canada’s land border as well.

“All non-essential travel needs to stop,” Sarkaria stressed.

Sarkaria, who is also the MPP for Brampton South, says his area is working on vaccinating other essential workers that are employed at large plants and warehouses in the Peel region.

“We know these variants are more transmissible,” he explained. “They make their way into workplaces where they can be transmitted more as well. That’s also why we’re ramping up our vaccination efforts as supply continues to be stretched. We’re targeting hot spots across the province.”

This includes vaccinating workers at Amazon warehouses, Maple Leaf Farms, Maple Lodge Farms and more.

Those vaccinations in the Peel region are expected to happen some time next week.