Needless COVID-19 screening is causing Canada’s airport delays, critics charge, while Ottawa says it’s following the science & More News Here

OTTAWA—The federal authorities says it is persevering with to defer to public well being recommendation in the case of scrapping COVID-19 vaccination mandates for air travellers — a measure critics declare is paralyzing Canada’s main airports.

“Our top priority throughout the pandemic has been to keep Canadians safe. We continue to take a layered approach to keeping travellers safe and crew safe, including with masking and vaccination requirements,” Transport Minister Omar Alghabra’s workplace mentioned Tuesday in a press release to the Star.

“We will base any decisions on the latest public health advice to ensure the safety of our transportation sector.”

The assertion got here after Interim Conservative Leader Candice Bergen known as on the authorities to “immediately remove” home and worldwide restrictions she mentioned have brought about journey backlogs throughout the nation.

“Anybody who’s travelling or wants to start travelling is pretty intimidated because of the massive lineups and the waits, and it makes travelling very unpleasant,” Bergen informed reporters.

Indeed, Toronto’s embattled Pearson International Airport turned the topic of a viral video Monday when former NHL star Ryan Whitney dubbed it “the worst airport on earth” after he skilled a sequence of flight delays, cancellations and lengthy strains.

Ottawa continues to take care of it’ll solely drop the rule requiring passengers to be absolutely vaccinated to board planes and trains when scientific steerage deems it acceptable.

“The reality is, as much as people would like to pretend we’re not, we’re still in a pandemic,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau mentioned final week after the authorities prolonged its pandemic border measures till at the very least June 30.

“I know people are eager to get back to things we love,” he mentioned. “But what will also further damage our tourism industry is if we get another wave, if we get more serious impacts from COVID. That’s why every single time we have been anchored in science.”

Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public well being officer, mentioned in March that public well being steerage was at a “very important juncture where we’re shifting the emphasis from requirements to recommendations.”

However, there have been no adjustments in the COVID-19 screening guidelines for air passengers since them, and strain now is mounting for Ottawa to rethink its technique forward of an anticipated surge in summer time journey.

“Our international passenger traffic is going to increase by 50 per cent. We’re going to see over 80,000 international arrivals a day at our hub airports, and we’re currently seeing 50,000,” warned Monette Pasher, interim president of the Canadian Airports Council.

“We need to be ready to facilitate those people through our facilities … and in order to do that, we need these public health measures removed.”

Major airports in the nation are already contending with bottlenecks in processing worldwide arrivals by way of Canadian customs, prolonged wait instances for departing travellers passing by way of safety screenings and passengers being held in planes till there is area for them to enter airports.

Air journey teams have attributed the snarls to officers needing to evaluate the info passengers submit by way of the ArriveCAN app, deciding on travellers for random COVID-19 testing and checking proof of vaccination.

Those delays are on prime of pandemic-induced staffing shortages, which the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA) says comes amid a “pent-up demand for air travel” regardless of a “significant number of layoffs throughout the aviation industry.”

So far, the authorities has directed most of its efforts towards addressing the staffing challenges, fairly than re-examining the necessity of random testing and vaccination passports.

Ottawa has established working teams with CATSA, airways and different businesses to deal with the problem, and has employed 400 new screening officers who are actually present process an accelerated coaching program. It has additionally earmarked $330 million in supplementary funding for CATSA, with an expectation that the company will return to pre-pandemic staffing ranges by this summer time.

But staffing is solely part of the disaster brewing in Canadian airports, Pasher informed the Star.

Ending vaccination mandates “is needed to support our industry’s economic recovery in order to compete globally,” she mentioned.

“We need to align ourselves with the international community … There’s over 50 countries that have already removed vaccine mandates and COVID protocols for travel.”

Eliminating random testing at airports and streamlining the use of the ArriveCAN app are different options, mentioned Benjamin Barrocas, the International Air Transport Association’s nation supervisor for Canada and the U.S.

“We wish that the federal government would have moved a lot faster. Canada was one of the leading countries to remove the pre-departure testing on April 1. So the industry knew that once that was removed, that there would be pent-up demand wanting to fly into and from Canada,” Barrocas mentioned.

“During … our weekly calls with Transport Canada, we understand that they’re working on exercises in terms of mapping and streamlining processes, but we really need help as soon as possible, particularly prior to the upcoming summer peak demand.”

It’s a difficulty that extends far past Pearson, Toronto Mayor John Tory informed reporters Tuesday.

“This is the gateway to all of Canada,” he mentioned.

“I’ve spoken to the CEO of the airport, I’ve spoken to two of the ministers in the federal government … We should all be sitting together at the table to resolve the issues at the airport and they should be resolved in a speedy fashion.”

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