First hit, last to recover: tourism sector begs Ottawa to ease border testing rules

The Coalition of the Hardest Hit Businesses (CHHC) is worried their operators are losing their “booking window” to recover this summer.

“International arrivals are still down 87 per cent,” says Beth Potter, president and CEO of the Tourism Industry Association of Canada and co-chair of the Coalition of Hardest Hit Businesses.

“The Coalition is calling on the Government of Canada to maintain and extend the THRP support program, announce a clear plan to remove barriers at the border, and dedicate resources to a national labour strategy to build the sector back.”

The Tourism and Recovery Hospitality Program, which offers wage and rent support, is set to expire on March 12, 2022.

“The government has helped the sector survive this far; it just needs a little more help to get back on its feet,” Susie Grynol, president and CEO of the Hotel Association of Canada and co-Chair of the Coalition of Hardest Hit Businesses writes in a news release.

“Omicron has set our businesses back with significant cancellations over the winter and spring, and we are quickly losing our booking window for the summer,” says Grynol.

“If we expect a summer recovery we’ve got to save the spring,” says Gordon Orr, CEO of Tourism Windsor-Essex Pelee Island (TWEPI).

Orr says so long as the border testing rules remain, international travellers will remain reluctant to cross into Canadian cities like Windsor.

“A lot of them (tourism and hospitality businesses) are on the brink of not surviving longer and that’s why we need to save spring,” he says.

Tom O’Brien too has noticed a sharp decline in American tourists visiting his winery, Coopers Hawk Vineyards in Harrow, Ont.

“They're (Americans) just not coming in, and I ask them and they say 'we don't want to do that test' and it just seems silly,” says O’Brien.

CTV News reached out to Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada, asking when the border testing rules will be lifted.

Here is their response:

The Government of Canada’s priority has been, and will continue to be, the health and safety of all Canadians.

Border testing is a critical part of Canada’s COVID-19 surveillance strategy, helping to detect variants of concern and vaccine-escape variants.

Like every other element of the Government of Canada’s COVID-19 response, border measures are informed by available data, operational considerations, scientific evidence and monitoring of the epidemiological situation both in Canada and internationally.

To lessen travel impediments, as of February 28, 2022, travellers have the option to provide proof of a professionally administered or observed antigen test taken outside of Canada no more than one day before their flight’s initially scheduled departure to Canada or their arrival at the land border or marine port of entry.

To be valid for the purpose of travel, the antigen test must be authorized for sale or distribution in Canada or in the jurisdiction in which it was obtained and must be taken outside of Canada. It must be administered by an accredited laboratory or testing provider, or, if self-administered, must be observed in person or via audio-visual means by an accredited laboratory or testing provider that supplied the test. 

As vaccination levels and healthcare system capacity improve, the Government of Canada will continue to consider further easing of measures at the borders—and when to lift or adjust those measures—to keep people in Canada safe.  

Barbara Barrett, a steering committee member for CHHC says it’s her understanding the government won’t be reassessing the situation until the end of March.

“That’s just not good enough,” says Barrett. “The flow of traffic is not happening. It’s confusing. It’s difficult to get the test so people just aren’t doing it and our businesses are unable to recover.”

Barrett says the THRP was passed by the federal government in late December before the Omicron variant forced a lockdown in Ontario.

Barrett believes Bill C2 was designed under the assumption the industry would be in recovery mode, by mid-March.

Rather, Barrett says the tourism and hospitality sectors remain in a reopening phase.