Thursday, January 13, 2022

Followup: With Two Days To Go, Chaos Reigns On Canadian Vaccine Mandate For Cross-Border Truckers

Following up on Tuesday's "If You Thought #BareShelvesBiden Was Trending Hard, Just Wait For Saturday", from Canadian Television, CTV:

Unvaccinated Canadian truckers will have to quarantine under new mandate, feds say 
Published Wednesday, January 12, 2022 9:47PM EST  
Last Updated Thursday, January 13, 2022 8:08PM EST  

The federal government says that unvaccinated Canadian truckers will not be exempted from the new federal vaccine mandate for truck drivers coming into effect this weekend.

In a joint statement, Canada’s transportation, health, and public safety ministers said that Canada’s initial policy requiring truckers coming into Canada to be fully vaccinated, or face PCR testing and quarantine requirements, stands.

Despite the Canada Border Services Agency telling reporters on Wednesday that unvaccinated Canadian truck drivers arriving at the border would “remain exempt” from any testing or quarantine requirements, the government now says that information, provided by a spokesperson, was incorrect.

As things stand, and as was initially the case before this week's confusion, unvaccinated Canadian truckers will have to “meet requirements for pre-entry, arrival and day eight testing, as well as quarantine requirements,” as they can’t be denied entry into Canada.

Unvaccinated or partially-vaccinated non-Canadian truckers will be turned away if they are unable to show proof of immunization or a valid medical contraindication to the COVID-19 vaccines.

“On November 19, 2021, we announced that as of January 15, 2022, certain categories of travellers who are currently exempt from entry requirements, will only be allowed to enter the country if they are fully vaccinated with one of the vaccines approved for entry into Canada. These groups include several essential service providers, including truck drivers,” said the ministers in the statement.

With just days to go before the vaccination requirement for truck drivers is set to come into effect, this is the second time federal officials have appeared to flip-flop on what the rules will be in the last 24 hours, though in their statement the government said its position “has not changed.”

“The information shared yesterday was provided in error. Our teams have been in touch with industry representatives to ensure they have the correct information,” reads the statement.

In order to qualify as a fully-vaccinated foreign national, non-Canadian truckers have to have completed their authorized vaccine series at least 14 days before entering the country and have submitted the required information through the ArriveCAN app.....

....MUCH MORE

This seems like a pretty important story, what with Canada being the largest trading partner of the U.S.* and all but it doesn't appear that anyone cares.
*Well, tied for #1 with Mexico, with both of them at $604.2 billion Year-to-date 2021 through November.

As noted in the outro from the BareShelvesBiden post:

Since they've had months to prepare for this I am sure the governments of Canada and the U.S. have a well-thought-out plan in place for this eventuality.

Probably in the file next to the CDC's covid response plan.

It is 8:47 pm, Thursday in Ottawa, so plenty of time, over 27 hours.