As of Saturday, Canadian truckers who are not adequately vaccinated will have to be tested on entry and on day 8 after their return to the country, while respecting the quarantine.
“Unvaccinated Canadian truckers will be required to meet pre-arrival, on arrival and day 8 screening, and quarantine requirements,” the Public Health Agency of Canada shared Thursday.
While entry into the country cannot be refused entry to unvaccinated Canadian truckers under the law, the situation is different for foreign truckers.
Public Health announced that effective Saturday, “unvaccinated or partially vaccinated trucking foreign nationals who arrive in Canada from the United States by land will be deported to the United States.”
“The final decision on entry into the country and on the quarantine of the individual rests with the government representative stationed at the point of entry, according to the information presented to him,” the agency nevertheless specified. .
The federal government will indeed go ahead with the vaccination requirement for truckers, contrary to the “erroneous” information conveyed by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) on Wednesday evening.
Organizations linked to the trucking industry, including the Quebec Trucking Association (ACQ), had received erroneous information from the CBSA that Ottawa had granted a one-week delay to give “oxygen” to industry, hence the confusion.
Its CEO, Marc Cadieux, said he was “disappointed that the government has created confusion at a time when the industry is fragile”. “We didn’t need that,” he said.
In an interview, Mr. Cadieux said he had learned that the government maintained the policy through the media, and that no one in Ottawa had contacted the ACQ during the day to correct the situation.
A source in the government said that the note sent had not been checked by the offices of the ministries concerned and that it could even have been sent by mistake.
The Ministers of Health, Transport and Public Safety clarified the situation in a joint statement on Thursday afternoon. “The information shared [mercredi] were wrong. Our teams have been communicating with industry representatives to ensure they have the correct information,” they wrote.
The policy was announced on November 19.
Government and industry estimate that the rate of truckers who are not adequately vaccinated ranges between 10% and 15%.