Canada-US border may re-open soon

Mayors of Ontario’s border cities along with the public safety minister discussed that travel restriction may start to ease on the Southern border by the end of June.

Mayor Drew Dilkens from Windsor mentioned that while the federals have not provided any official date yet, more Canadians are expected to be vaccinated by June 21. He said that the number of people vaccinated is enough to consider easing the restrictions in travel between Canada and the U.S. earlier in May. With this, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suggested that 75% of Canadians must be vaccinated and cases of COVID-19 / Corona Virus would have to remain low in numbers for them to scale back the restrictions.

In both countries, cases of Coronavirus are getting low. Since March 2020, U.S. has seen their lowest numbers and about 41% are fully vaccinated. Canada is down in numbers since October and about 58% of Canadians have already received their first dose with them having 5% of fully vaccinated Canadians.

Jim Diodati, mayor of Niagara Falls also mentioned that Public Safety Minister Bill Blair that by June 21 they are expecting 75% of Canadians to have their first dose of vaccine and 20% of fully vaccinated; and by July 21 the remaining 75% of the population is to be fully vaccinated. As a result, Federal Government is looking at the possibility of gradually opening the borders and they are optimistic that the plan of reopening will be out soon.
Improved public health conditions along with the increasing vaccination rate have opened the door to the possibility of an easing or refinement of border measures aligned with the best advice of public health experts, says James Cudmore, minister of public safety’s spokesperson. He also mentioned that current measures might be extended again depending on the situation within three weeks’ time.

However, according to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Canada is in no rush to reopen the border as well as Canadians. Based on the recent Angus Reid poll, almost half of Canadians favored for the borders to be closed until September. During a press conference in Ottawa, Prime Minister Trudeau said “We’re on the right path, but we’ll make our decisions based on the interest of Canadians and not based on what other countries want.”

Even all that being said, only the federal government, along with Health Canada can make the rules about the border restrictions.