"It's not the time to travel": Trudeau hints at new measures to come

For the second time in a week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has warned Canadians not to travel.

At a press conference on Friday, Trudeau said no one should be planning an international trip and warned that his government might implement new measures without notice.

“We could be bringing in new measures that significantly impede your ability to return to Canada at any given moment, without warning,” Trudeau said.

The prime minister said he and the country’s premiers had discussed a “number of different options” that could be imposed to further limit travel and keep Canadians safe.

Trudeau said more information on the potential restrictions would be provided in the coming days but did hint at the possibility of quarantine hotels.

With spring break coming up, he also warned that Canadians should not be planning travel across the country, either.

“People need to hunker down, stay home, [and] make sure we kill this second wave of the virus so that we can get through to the spring,” Trudeau said.

“The bottom line is this: it’s not the time to travel. Either internationally or across the country.”

Friday’s sentiments echoed statements Trudeau made earlier in the week. On January 19, he told Canadians, “Cancel your trip.”

“It’s not the time to be travelling abroad. If you had planned to leave the country, please, on behalf of all Canadians, cancel your trip. It’s not worth catching COVID-19 and bringing it back to Canada for a trip down south or elsewhere,” he said at the time.

Earlier this month, the federal government implemented stricter travel measures requiring all air travellers bound for Canada to present a pre-departure negative COVID-19 test in order to fly.

Travellers who are found entering the country with fake COVID-19 test results can be fined $5,000.

This week, four Canada-bound flights were flagged due to potential COVID-19 exposure on the entire plane.

According to the Government of Canada’s list of travel-induced exposures, “all rows” of Air/Canada Rouge flight 1803 may have been exposed to the virus on a flight from Kingston, Jamaica, to Toronto’s Pearson Airport on January 15.

The other three flights travelled from Port-au-Prince, Haiti, to Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport.