Land Border Opening?

[samsteele]

Any guesses ahead of the July 21st date? Do you think anything will change?

My guess is that the US is certainly pushing for a more streamlined entrance into the US for Canadians. Many states including Florida want all Canadians back including theme park visitors and snowbirds who are afraid to get on a plane and want to drive their own vehicles across the border. Remember how quickly Florida changed their driver licence policy a few years ago when they unwittingly snared snowbirds who rightly should only need to rely on their own Cdn licence. Florida as well as Myrtle Beach, Arizona, etc want Canadian snowbirds back and spending. Same with the border states missing our gas, mall shopping sprees and grocery runs.

My gut is that the app will be all that's needed within the month and US border guards will have complete access to what we've uploaded on the app and can easily verify full vax. I doubt the tests will be required by the end of summer for border crossing or even for return to Canada. Air flights may be another animal depending on AC and WJ and their own policies and I can see testing continued for boarding flights into the fall.

 

[Jrb1979]

A bit of rant but it does go with the topic. I feel bad for the Canadian tourism industry. They have lost a lot in the last year. What saddens me more is that the majority of Canadians may feel bad for the tourism industry, many have not done much to help it. I get many are yearning for regular travel, me included.

 

[TommyJK]

I think one of the issues is that depsite our collective desire on this board to want the border opened (it is a Disney board so most of us have a vested "personal" interest in wanting that border open to more easily travel), most Canadians don't want it open yet.

The most recent Nanos research survey shows that while 63% say they are ok with it opening "sometime this year", when you break that down it shows only 15% want it opened immediately, and only another 14% said sometime this summer. 34% said "this fall".

 

[Jrb1979]

I think one of the issues is that depsite our collective desire on this board to want the border opened (it is a Disney board so most of us have a vested "personal" interest in wanting that border open to more easily travel), most Canadians don't want it open yet.

The most recent Nanos research survey shows that while 63% say they are ok with it opening "sometime this year", when you break that down it shows only 15% want it opened immediately, and only another 14% said sometime this summer. 34% said "this fall".

I'm all for keeping it closed longer. Partially how Covid is still a pretty big thing in many parts of the world. My biggest reason is to help our economy.

 

[Dawg74]

I think there is a chance the two governments will jointly relax restrictions for vaccinated travellers on July 21. We are planning to drive to Florida in September, if the restrictions don’t change we are going to fly. Hope we hear something later this week.

 

[Pumpkin1172]

A bit of rant but it does go with the topic. I feel bad for the Canadian tourism industry. They have lost a lot in the last year. What saddens me more is that the majority of Canadians may feel bad for the tourism industry, many have not done much to help it. I get many are yearning for regular travel, me included.

As much as I would love to fly east...but the prices for flights, hotels, restaurants, etc etc across our country are absolutely mind blowing. As much as I would love to travel east to visit....it will cost us way more $$$ to travel there, than to do a trip in the middle of winter to an all inclusive resort. The flights alone from Alberta - East is 1000.00+ and that doesn't include any hotels, car rentals, food...when I can go to a winter destination for 2000.00 everything included.

We are planning a trip to the East...but it will be one of those once and done trips....just based on the cost. Our bank account can't do it right now....and THAT is sad. That it is cheaper for us to travel outside of our country...than stay and visit our own beautiful country.

I feel for all the tourism places across Canada....they are feeling it everywhere.

Edited to add prices of flights

My city to Toronto - 1200 - 1350
My city to Halifax - 1000 - 1100
My city to Ottawa 1100-1350
My city to Montreal 1300
)
It would be a 4.5 hr drive to the nearest bigger center plus add in a 150 - 200 hotel room plus meal to make the actual flights cheaper ( but doesn't actually make it cheaper

 

[HappilyEverAfter80]

I think one of the issues is that depsite our collective desire on this board to want the border opened (it is a Disney board so most of us have a vested "personal" interest in wanting that border open to more easily travel), most Canadians don't want it open yet.

The most recent Nanos research survey shows that while 63% say they are ok with it opening "sometime this year", when you break that down it shows only 15% want it opened immediately, and only another 14% said sometime this summer. 34% said "this fall".

I think that generally majority of Canadians don’t want it reopen without any restrictions, like the way it was pre-covid.
I doubt that the survey asked if we should open to fully vaccinated travellers and test upon arrival.
Even if the survey was accurate, I imagine it was done earlier this spring because it says 15 % want it open immediately , another 14% sometime this summer... well, sometime this summer is now. Even Fall is relatively soon.
Anyway. Personally I’m happy with the quarantine being lifted for fully vaxxed Canadians and we have flights booked for mid August. If the land border reopens we may drive instead, if testing is still required anyway. Slowly but surely we are heading in the right direction. Maybe not July 21 but I’d be surprised if some more restrictions are not lifted come Aug 21.

 

[HappilyEverAfter80]

I'm all for keeping it closed longer. Partially how Covid is still a pretty big thing in many parts of the world. My biggest reason is to help our economy.

I agree about not reopening to the world, but we are talking about the Canada/USA land border reopening.

 

[HappilyEverAfter80]

A bit of rant but it does go with the topic. I feel bad for the Canadian tourism industry. They have lost a lot in the last year. What saddens me more is that the majority of Canadians may feel bad for the tourism industry, many have not done much to help it. I get many are yearning for regular travel, me included.

Believe me, many of us Canadians looked into vacationing in our country first. We certainly did. In Ontario where we live, things were completely shuttered meaning everything closed til very recent.
Places that are open, the prices are through the roof. $700 per night is the cost of a nice resort in Muskoka. Ok, so we looked at flying to Alberta, or BC. Flights are expensive and lodging very limited and also very expensive. It’s actually less for us to go to Disney world for a week, then vacation in Canada for a week.
We priced so many options in Canada, we really did. Very very expensive AND very limited.

 

[Madame]

Believe me, many of us Canadians looked into vacationing in our country first. We certainly did. In Ontario where we live, things were completely shuttered meaning everything closed til very recent.
Places that are open, the prices are through the roof. $700 per night is the cost of a nice resort in Muskoka. Ok, so we looked at flying to Alberta, or BC. Flights are expensive and lodging very limited and also very expensive. It’s actually less for us to go to Disney world for a week, then vacation in Canada for a week.
We priced so many options in Canada, we really did. Very very expensive AND very limited.

Seriously agree. All vaccinated up & nowhere to go

 

[MamaLema]

My city to Halifax - 1000 - 1100
My city to Ottawa 1100-1350
My city to Montreal 1300
)

This is exactly why we’ve never done a Canadian holiday

 

[TommyJK]

I think that generally majority of Canadians don’t want it reopen without any restrictions, like the way it was pre-covid.
I doubt that the survey asked if we should open to fully vaccinated travellers and test upon arrival.
Even if the survey was accurate, I imagine it was done earlier this spring because it says 15 % want it open immediately , another 14% sometime this summer... well, sometime this summer is now. Even Fall is relatively soon.

The survey was run June 30th - July 5th by Nanos Research which is a highly reputable polling company so I don't have any reason not to believe the accuracy of the results.

It also asked how satisfied the respondents were with how the government has handled the borders since the pandemic began. 60% of respondents gave a score of 7 or higher out of 10. It also asked what is more important when it comes to decisions on opening the border, public health vs the economy. 79% said public health while 18% said the economy.

 

[HappilyEverAfter80]

The survey was run June 30th - July 5th by Nanos Research which is a highly reputable polling company so I don't have any reason not to believe the accuracy of the results.

It also asked how satisfied the respondents were with how the government has handled the borders since the pandemic began. 60% of respondents gave a score of 7 or higher out of 10. It also asked what is more important when it comes to decisions on opening the border, public health vs the economy. 79% said public health while 18% said the economy.

Well, a good chunk of those surveyed still want them open by Fall... I think that is reasonable and not that far away.
Let’s hope that the vaccines keep doing their job and we can get on with our lives.

 

[bookbabe626]

What I‘ve noticed in discussions with friends and family is that the majority of people who are strongly in favour of keeping the borders closed seem to be the ones with no time/money/plans to travel outside of the province.

Those same people also tend to be the ones saying to keep stores and restaurants closed or open with extensive restrictions, since they don’t work in tourism or hospitality and tend to work jobs where they are working from home with really only positive impacts from the lockdowns and closures.

It’s really easy to vote in favour of closures if those closures don’t impact you in any way, shape or form. If you don’t travel, it’s easy to say that travel should be banned. If you don’t work in retail, tourism or hospitality, it’s easy to say those things should be closed.

I would hope that from this point the decisions are made based on actual numbers and science, and related to vaccinated status, etc. rather than based on public pressure via anonymous survey results.

 

[Pumpkin1172]

All I know is that we were told....vaccinate so we can get our lives " back " and start living again.

All we can do hope everyone keeps going for their second vaccination, Most of the people who I know who got vaccinated, did it for that reason...and also for travelling. Our numbers here are not anywhere near the numbers of active and recovered cases in other parts of the world...and most who are travelling are not wanting to get sick or bring it back with them.

Here is Alberta... 74% of eligible people have received their first dose
55% of eligible people have received their second dose.
Edited to add....in the city I live in...we only have 5 active cases...with no new cases in the last 8 days in a city and surrounding area of about 150,000 - 200,000 depending on how far out you want to go. This area is more " vaccine hesitant" than the rest of the province I don't know if it is because of the average age of our population ( we are a VERY YOUNG city with young families and children ) or if they are uninformed and don't want to look at the data

Yesterday they reported only 33 new cases in the whole province, no new deaths or hospitalizations. Hopefully we continue on this trend. It's never going to go away. Like I have said from the beginning...it's here and NOT ever going away. Even chief medical officer has stated...It's here to stay, we need to learn to live with it. As we learn more and more about it. and how we can prevent ourselves and loved ones from it, use the knowledge we have and we can live with this.

Hopefully those in power " follow the science" which they were " quoting" for the longest time that they would do. Only time will tell which side of the road they want to follow.

 

[Sue M]

Personally I don’t see any reason why our border shouldn’t be open to fully vaccinated travellers. And it would have to be with a vaccine approved by our govt.
I live close to the Washington border and miss my cross border day trips to Trader Joe’s, Bellingham Costco, etc!

But I can’t see that happening until US agrees to provide vaccine passport. I feel they’ll have to, as any other country will require proof of vaccine to enter.

 

[KNovacovschi]

Personally I don’t see any reason why our border shouldn’t be open to fully vaccinated travellers. And it would have to be with a vaccine approved by our govt.
I live close to the Washington border and miss my cross border day trips to Trader Joe’s, Bellingham Costco, etc!

But I can’t see that happening until US agrees to provide vaccine passport. I feel they’ll have to, as any other country will require proof of vaccine to enter.

I don't get what the big deal is with providing proof of vaccination either. When you go to some other countries you are required to have certain immunizations and have to show proof of them so how is this any different, it just baffles me how some people are so opposed to just showing a piece of paper or scanning a QR code. I'm referring to those in US and Canada that think it infringes on their rights not you specifically.

 

[Sue M]

I heard an announcement today that our govt is working on a vaccine passport that would be internationally accepted. But it will be up to the individual provinces to go with it or not. Cough, Alberta
This would be great. I detest the BC service app you have to download in order to get to Health Gateway where you can get digital copy of vaccine record. So stupid.

 

[bardays]

I heard an announcement today that our govt is working on a vaccine passport that would be internationally accepted. But it will be up to the individual provinces to go with it or not. Cough, Alberta
This would be great. I detest the BC service app you have to download in order to get to Health Gateway where you can get digital copy of vaccine record. So stupid.

the health gateway/service app hurts my head!

 

[newdeal]

vaccination supply is high, but interest is waning. This is the perfect time to announce more perks for vaccinated folks so expect something soon. Not likely for July 21 though because the government can't work that fast