Canada-US border restriction announcement to be made this week: report

The federal government is reportedly going to make an announcement concerning the Canada-US border this week.

According to a report from the Toronto Star, the government will announce the easing of border restrictions on Friday, June 11.

On Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada is prepared to open its borders to fully vaccinated international travellers but did not specify a timetable for when it could happen.

The prime minister said he expects “high interest” from travellers to visit Canada as restrictions begin to ease across the country. He cited a successful vaccine rollout across the country, which he says is better than most countries, and a decrease in coronavirus cases as driving forces.

“We’re not going to get ahead of ourselves. We are looking at how we’re going to start welcoming tourists in phased ways as numbers come down in Canada and the United States,” said Trudeau during a virtual conference with the St. John’s Board of Trade.

• See also:
  • Trudeau says Canada will open borders for fully vaccinated international travellers
  • Air Canada resuming flights to Italy under program that lets passengers skip quarantine
  • Here’s why Canadian flights are ridiculously cheap right now

The report says a Friday announcement would come 10 days ahead of the proposed renewal date for the current Canada-US border restrictions, which is set to expire on June 21.

The Canada-US border, the longest land border in the world, has been closed to non-essential travel since March 2020.

In a May Angus Reid Institute poll, 76% of Canadians said they would approve of travel to the US if a vaccine passport was issued for travellers. In the same report, four out of five Canadians said they’d use a vaccine passport to travel overseas.