Our border with the U.S. is (finally) open! How much of a mess will it be?

Jordan For the first time in more than a year and a half, Canadians are free to drive across the border to to the United States. Okay, maybe free is not the most accurate description.

News Clips …whatever Port of entry you’re planning to use, as soon as it opens, you can cross if you have proof of vaccination…

…vaccinated Canadian travellers don’t need a PCR test to get into the United States, but you do need one to come home, and it can cost up to 200 American dollars…

Jordan It is one thing to draw up a list of rules and restrictions, and quite another to make sure that they are followed to the letter, at scale, across the world’s longest undefended land border. A border with hundreds and hundreds of crossing points in many different provinces and states. So what will the US-Canada border actually look like in the coming days now that it’s finally open for business? What do you need to know if you’re planning to cross or you’re planning a trip in a few months? What applies to you? What doesn’t? And how messy could things get at the busiest crossings while everybody tries to figure that out?

I’m Jordan Heath-Rawlings, this is the Big Story. Cormac Mac Sweeney is our Parliament Hill reporter. He works for us, he works for CityNews, he is the man we turn to when we need complicated government regulations, explain simply. Hello, Cormac.

Cormac Hello.

Jordan What changed yesterday in regards to travel to and from our closest neighbour to the south?

Cormac Well, the United States wasn’t allowing people into the US across land borders unless you had essential travel reasons. And now if you’ve been itching to jump into your car or on a ferry if you live on one of the coasts, and head stateside for a vacation, some cross border shopping or to check out some sports games or a concert. You can do that. Fully vaccinated Canadians are allowed to cross over land ports of entry and take the ferry into places like Maine and Washington again.

It’s not exactly a return to normal, but it’s a big step, especially for those living in border communities where they would normally be crossing the border for recreation and travel. Also effective is this new requirement for air travellers heading into the United States. They will now be required to be fully vaccinated as well and to provide proof of vaccination before boarding a plane into the US. It is important to note, though, that children under the age of 18 are exempt from the Vaccination rules.

Jordan We’ll get into the rules and regulations and testing requirements and all of that in a minute. But first, the border opened first thing Monday. We’re speaking on Monday afternoon. What do we know about what the reopening has looked like? I know a lot of people were imagining quite the lineups.

Cormac Yeah, we did see some lineups, especially out in the Vancouver area in BC. There’s a crossing there, and we did see some waits, I think, 40 minutes or more for people to cross the border. So there was that sort of surge of people trying to head in and people were told to expect delays because there’s more documentation, more questions and things that border agents have to go through, and everybody’s being a little bit careful at the moment. But a lot of travel and tourism groups as well did say that it would be likely a slow return to normal.

So, yeah, we could get a little bit of a surge right at the start. But most Canadians might not be as willing to head south of the border right away, to wait and see how things go. Maybe around the holidays, we could see another surge of Canadians heading stateside, but they don’t expect it to be snap your fingers and everything is back to normal. They think it’s going to take months for regular travel, both to and from the United States.

And the other big thing is business travel as well is not going to be as normal as it once was, because a lot of us have figured out we can do these business meetings over Zoom. And so unless you need to travel and cost your company money, why would you need to do that anymore if you can do it all virtually which we’re all accustomed to now. So that’s another thing that might not return to normal right away.

Jordan So fully vaccinated travellers are now allowed to cross at land borders. Explain it to me as though I’m dumb what that looks like. What do I need to take with me in order to cross? When we say fully vaccinated travellers, who does that count and who doesn’t it count? Just give me the very basics.

Cormac Sure. Okay. So first of all, what you need to bring is your proof of vaccination. You need to prove that you have been vaccinated with an American approved vaccine or a vaccine that’s approved by the World Health Organization. And so most provinces have now adopted their digital vaccine passports, or you should be able to access a paper copy. If you want to be extra safe, it’s probably a good idea to print off a couple of versions of your paper copy or to scan them and have those on hand along with your digital vaccine passport, in case you face any issues with not just border agents from the US, but also businesses in the US that are looking at taking these.

Now, on top of that, you won’t have to show a proof of a negative COVID test if you’re crossing one of these land borders. But you should be able to verbally attest to your vaccination status. And you might not exactly be asked to have that proof of vaccination right off the bat. But you should definitely have it because you’ll need to show it if you are. You will, however, need a negative test to return to Canada. And I think we’re going to get into that a little bit later. So you don’t need one if you’re crossing by land to head down south of the border, but you will need one on your way back.

It’s important that you don’t try and scam the system. Not only is that illegal, but if you try to provide any inappropriate documentation, let’s just say you’re faking your vaccine passport. You could be subject to expulsion or removal from the United States, and that could be a long time. They could expel you from the States, and you won’t be able to return again. It could even be a lifetime. So you have to make sure that you’re not trying to scam the system because again, that is illegal in normal times. It’s illegal in the pandemic times. You can’t lie to border agents.

One important thing, though, don’t forget your passport because you probably need that if you’re traveling south of the border anyway. But yeah, those are some important documents to have.

Jordan You mentioned that Canadians need proof of being fully vaccinated by a US approved vaccine. What’s the difference? And somebody like myself who had AstraZeneca and then Moderna and mixed them, where does all that land?

Cormac Yeah. So that’s a very important question because there was a huge question mark around the reopening of the US border and what it would mean for a lot of Canadians, myself included, who have a mix of vaccines. So if you’re partially vaccinated, let’s get this out of the way, you need both doses of these approved vaccines to be considered fully vaccinated, and you need to have received your second dose more than 14 days from the date of your travel. Partially vaccinated is still considered unvaccinated.

If you’ve received AstraZeneca, it’s all good, because the World Health Organization approved vaccines include Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech, Oxford AstraZeneca, and the Indian counterpart called COVISHIELD. So those are ones that Canadians have, and those will all be accepted by the US as valid vaccines. They’ve also said that they will accept mixed doses of those vaccines, which impacts millions and millions of Canadians. And if you’re among those, you will still be allowed to go down to the United States.

Jordan Okay, let’s put aside for a second whatever I do down in the United States, to your point, shopping and seeing a game. But also lots of people have been separated from their loved ones for more than a year and a half. So you drive in, you show your proof of vaccination and your actual passport. You get in and you have your visit. What do I need to get back into Canada?

Cormac You do need your proof of vaccination still, so that’s something you just should hold on to whether you’re going down to the States or not. One thing you have to do is when you’re coming back into Canada from any international travel, you have to use the ArriveCAN app, and that’s an app that the government had set up, and it’s still using right now. You can upload things like your proof of vaccination on there so that it’s sort of pre screened, if you will, that you have it all on this app. But you also still have to put in your quarantine plan and things like that in case you end up getting Covid while you are traveling abroad. So you have to have a plan. You have to do some planning.

You do need a negative PCR test, but here’s where it gets a little bit tricky. So if you’re taking off down to the States for, let’s say, a day trip or two days, you can take a PCR test in Canada and then use that same test to get back into Canada. You don’t have to get another PCR test or a molecular test. There are a couple of different types of molecular tests, but the PCR is the more common one. You can avoid getting that test in the US if you’re there for less than 72 hours and you got the test here in Canada first. And so there have been questions about that. About ‘what’s the point of doing the test if you’re only going to use the Canadian one?’

Jordan That was going to be my question.

Cormac Yeah. There have been some questions raised about the validity of that plan and whether it makes sense or not. And things are actively under review right now, we’re told by officials. I think we’ll talk about that again a little bit later. But if you’re staying for more than 72 hours, you need to take another PCR test down in the States, and you need to be able to prove that at the border.

Now, it also is a little bit different for families with kids who are not eligible to be vaccinated or haven’t yet been vaccinated. If they’re under five years of age, they are exempt from those testing requirements. However, if they’re older than five years of age, they still need to have that negative molecular test result to get back into Canada.

Jordan And when you say negative molecular test results, I know everybody kind of refers to the PCR test as the way back in your brain tests. But there are also rapid tests that people have been using. Right. And are those the same thing? Do they count or do you need the big poke?

Cormac You need the molecular test. Generally speaking, there are a few different types of molecular tests, and I’m not an expert on all of them, and I apologize for that. But there are a couple of molecular tests, and the government has it on their website of what is and is not acceptable. And they do say those simple rapid tests that you get. I think a lot of schools are using them right now just to try and see if there’s a case in a class to quickly test all the other kids. Those are not good enough, because even with those rapid tests, if you test positive on that rapid test, I believe most likely you’re still asked to go get a PCR test to make the confirmation. And so it’s the PCR test that is the better standard, if you will, for determining whether or not you have COVID. And that’s why they want you to have that molecular test rather than those more rapid antigen tests.

Jordan I’m not expecting you to know all the answers to my next question, but maybe we could just discuss it a bit because I bet parents are thinking about it after that. So let’s say a family of four, including two kids under twelve but over five, goes to the US for more than 72 hours. Those people all need to test negative on their way back to Canada, or at least they need to test before they’re on their way into the country. And this is what I really want to know that I don’t know if you know or not. Are those tests free anywhere in the States? Can people get them before going to the airport, or are we talking about paying American medical costs out of pocket here?

Cormac Yeah, it’s going to get costly. And this is one of the main arguments that a lot of people who are pushing to have the PCR testing requirements scrapped are making, that this is just a huge cost for families if they want to head down to the States. Now, some people may say good, we still shouldn’t be heading down to the States right now, and that’s their opinion on the matter. There are others who say I’ve got family down in certain areas of the States I haven’t seen in ages. The family is almost fully vaccinated. And if we could get our kids vaccinated, we would. But we need to go see grandma, grandpa, uncles and aunts, whoever it may be.

But yeah, to answer your question directly, this is an issue because I haven’t heard of any free PCR tests to head back. There might be, but from what I’ve looked into and what I’ve heard from anecdotally from a lot of friends who go down there, the cost could be anywhere between $100 and $300 per test, per person. So you could go to private testing centres. I’ve heard from someone I know who went down to the States that there was a PCR test tent set up in a mall parking lot that they went to to get theirs. And I believe some pharmacies as well down in the States.

So it’s very important that if people are heading down there, they need to make sure they get that PCR test and you got to plan ahead, make appointments. It’s not going to be simple. It’s not going to be easy. Like you and your friends just saying, hey, let’s go down and check out this concert. You have to make sure you know what you need to get back into Canada depending on how long you’re staying.

Jordan And nobody wants to discuss this, but what if the tests are inconclusive or you test positive and you’re with children? What are you expected to do upon return?

Cormac Well, anybody who’s testing positive, you have to quarantine. And that’s the reason why they have the quarantine plans, and if you are quarantining, as well, you have to take another test and they have these quarantine sites set up in Canada to help people who might not have a place to stay. But if you have a place to stay like you’re returning home and you can stay in your home and you have access to everything you need, order your groceries online, have them delivered to the door, whatever that might be.

The thing is, you could get a visit from health officials or the RCMP to check in and make sure you are quarantining. If not, you could face some serious fines as a result of that. And there have been people who have faced these fines and thousands of dollars depending on the scenario. So there’s a lot to consider in that regard.

But if you’re a family, let’s say, one very important thing to think about is if you have children under the age of twelve who are not eligible to receive a vaccine, they face a series of restrictions whether they test positive or show symptoms or not. If you’re under twelve years of age, you can’t get the vaccine, you have to try to avoid for two weeks attending any school, day camps or camps or daycares. You can’t be in a place where you would have interactions with vulnerable people, like a long term care facility, retirement homes, those sorts of things. You can’t be meeting with immunocompromised people. You’re not supposed to be traveling on public transportation, and you shouldn’t be going to any large, crowded settings indoors or outdoors. So don’t go to an amusement park or a sporting event.

Jordan Is this even if you test negative?

Cormac Yes. For kids who are under the age of twelve who are not vaccinated. And that applies to both visitors to our country or Canadians returning to Canada. So kids under twelve face a number of different restrictions and they have to follow these things. Otherwise, the family could face penalties as well from public health officials. So it’s not going to be an easy trip for families to just jump south of the border as well. They have to take a lot of this into account. It’s going to be a whole ordeal if you’ve got kids in school who are unvaccinated.

If you’re twelve to 17 years of age and you head down to the States, because vaccination status, again, anyone under the age of 18 is exempt when it comes to the US rules. If they’re unvaccinated and they come back to Canada, since they would be eligible for a vaccine here, and they’re able to go down to the States, they would have to quarantine for two weeks upon their arrival back in Canada. But if they’re fully vaccinated, they follow the same rules as everyone else who’s fully vaccinated.

Jordan That’s definitely a reason to plan these trips well in advance and very carefully.

Cormac Yeah, and I’ve already noticed some complaints online of people saying, my friends, family can come up here from the States, but I can’t go down there because when I come back, it’s just going to be such a hassle for my children. But as I said to you before, public health officials and the government have indicated that they are actively reviewing a lot of their rules around testing and crossing the border right now to see what needs to stay and what needs to go.

And I think one game changer for Canada would definitely be the paediatric vaccine for kids between the ages of five and eleven. Because once you get those in there and most of our kids are vaccinated, we’re going to see our vaccination rates go up again in terms of our total population. And on top of that, I think there will be a little bit more ease in the minds of public health officials and politicians to make those changes to make travel a little bit easier for everyone.

Jordan Yeah, we’re going to be doing an episode about paediatric vaccinations later this week because it won’t surprise you to hear we get a lot of listener questions on that one. Before I let you go, I have one other question just because you touched on it a couple of times. When you say this policy is being reviewed, that policy is being looked at. I guess I’m trying to get a sense of how in flux these policies are. And it’s one thing to kind of say every policy is under review and things might be changing. And then, on the other hand, we’re saying, okay, well, you have to plan well in advance according to these policies. So trying to get a sense of when people might have more clarity around, like thinking long term, I’m sure there are families right now planning winter vacations for after the holidays, right?

Cormac Yeah. Or even for the holidays. And we just don’t have an answer from the government on this right now. It’s not quite clear how long they’re going to be considering this. I mean, just the fact that they are saying they’re actively reviewing this means that it might be sooner rather than later. But it’s not clear that that’s going to be the case.

The deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland kind of said it this way, and I’m just paraphrasing what I took from her, was the rules are the rules until the rules change. So don’t just try to plan as if the rules are going to change. You can’t rely on that. So these are the current rules, and these might be the rules you might have to deal with in weeks or months from now. So plan around that. And if they change and make it easier for your travel, great, if they don’t, then at least you’ve planned that out. It’s not clear how long they’re going to look at this.

I think they do, though, want to see. And I think Dr. Tam has hinted at this as well, our chief public health officer in Canada, that they want to make sure that the epidemiological situations in Canada and the US are good enough to make those changes. And if you look at it right now, Canada has got a much better vaccination rate than the United States. The US is somewhere around 58% of its total population. That’s not eligible, that’s total population both eligible and not eligible for vaccines. We’re at around 75%. And once paediatric vaccines come into play, I mean, the US is already starting to hand these out.

So expect that 58% number to go up again. And for Canada, we could see that number jump as well as a result of having millions of kids being eligible to get that vaccine and most of them will likely get that vaccine. There might be some hesitancy, so maybe it won’t be the same uptake as the adults, depending on the family. But once we see those things change again, I think there might be a little bit more comfort on the side of health officials as well as politicians to make some changes.

But what if we have another big spike in cases? We’ve seen it around the world where some countries are seeing these renewed spikes and it’s becoming a problem. So if we start to see this happen in the United States with a much larger unvaccinated population in their society than Canada has, that might give pause for our politicians here to just allow a relaxation of a lot of these rules. And if we’re also dealing with that here in Canada, that could be another thing. Federal health officials have said that this is not going to be an easy winter. We’re going to see spikes, and we’re going to see bumps and challenges down the road until probably the springtime, when the country is in a better situation.

So with that in mind, it’s not clear when we’ll see any changes to these rules. And I think we’re going to be continuing to ask our politicians about things like the PCR test, whether that makes sense, whether we need to have all of the same requirements for kids who are under twelve after we get these paediatric vaccines, that will probably prompt another change in the rules as well. So we’ll see how it goes. If you’re itching to take a trip down to the States. I’d say just plan on the current rules as they are and see if anything changes before you take off.

Jordan Thanks for this, Cormac. And by the way, the rules are the rules until the rules change is probably the clearest piece of government messaging for some time in this pandemic.

Cormac Yeah, I don’t think that was her exact line. That was my paraphrasing of it, but maybe they should adopt that.

Jordan At least it makes sense. Thank you again for this. Stay safe out there.

Cormac You too.

Jordan Cormac Mac Sweeney, our Parliament Hill reporter.

That was the Big Story. For more from us, head to thebigstorypodcast.ca. Find us on Twitter at @TheBigStoryFPN. You can find Cormac on Twitter at @cmaconthehill. You can also talk to us via email anytime. thebigstorypodcast@rci.rogers.com [click here!]. You can listen to this podcast anywhere you like. If you’re doing it in public, maybe use headphones just to be kind to your fellow citizens.

Thanks for listening. I’m Jordan Heath-Rawlings. We’ll talk tomorrow.

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