End in sight for COVID-19 border restrictions in Windsor, Ont.

By the end of September, the federal government is planning to drop its COVID-19 vaccine border requirements, and the ArriveCan application will become optional, sources confirmed to CTV News late Tuesday afternoon.

The government is expected to make this policy change by the end of the month, and the sources indicated the Liberals will also be ending the outstanding random COVID-19 testing for travellers.

Earlier in the day a group of border city politicians called on the Canadian and American governments to end pandemic restrictions at the Canada/U.S.A. border, sending a letter to Prime Minister Trudeau and President Biden on Tuesday.

It was signed by 22 Canada/U.S. border mayors and 16 members of Parliament and United States Congress.

They said it’s time for both governments to end “unnecessary” conditions at the border and return it to a normal pre-pandemic state. It continued saying border mayors have engaged health professionals and received advice on best practices, noting pandemic era measures are no longer meaningful or helpful.

“It’s time to move on,” says Windsor’s Mayor Drew Dilkens. “We know that in communities like ours, having the app in place, although it may seem simple for a lot of us, we know that it is a barrier for people to come to Canada.”

The letter points out that air travel has been allowed to resume in such high volume that air infrastructure is struggling to process the number of travellers and notes unvaccinated travellers can travel thousands of kilometres across Canada and the United States while land borders are regulated at the expense of communities whose livelihoods depend on the back-and-forth crossing of the border.

“It is a barrier for people to cross the border,” Dilkens continues. “And in a border city where we rely on smooth and efficient border crossings, any friction is bad for business.”

The group of politicians said that the letter makes clear that “this is a non-partisan issue,” and are imploring both federal governments for urgent action to help border communities recover and return to normal.

Windsor-Tecumseh Liberal MP Irek Kusmierczyk tells CTV News Windsor he is optimistic about forthcoming news regarding border measures like the mandatory ArriveCAN app.

“I'm very confident that the government understands fully the challenges for border communities like ours when it comes to things like ArriveCan and other border measures,” Kusmierczyk says. “And so we've definitely made sure that our voices are heard up in Ottawa and I feel very optimistic.”

He explains, “We've definitely heard from residents, from constituents, we've heard from businesses, we've heard from seniors, we've heard from people in the disability community as well too just really telling us about the challenges that ArriveCAN presents to them.”

Kusmierczyk says people are used to having a seamless border that allows back and forth crossover traffic, saying, “That's the way it's always been and when you drive over, you know the one or two questions you might be asked at the border is where are you going and what are you bringing it over and that's about it. And so we want to get back to that time like before the pandemic when we had a seamless border and we want to get close back to that as close as possible.”

Kusmierczyk adds, “We're going to have some good news on the issue of ArriveCAN, on border measures on September 30.”

— With files from CTVNews.ca’s Rachel Aiello