The customs puzzle does not spare travel to the United States by land. The ArriveCAN application – mandatory to enter Canada – lengthens the queues, criticizes the customs union. Several travelers denounce a system that subjects them to quarantine for no valid reason.
Nancy Prada breathed a sigh of relief last winter when the border between Canada and the United States was reopened for tourists like her. She started spending weekends again at her cabin in Vermont, just across “the lines”.
However, these banal trips are no longer easy. Each time she has to fill out a health form on the ArriveCAN app. And the software fails. “One time out of two”, this electronic interrogation imposes a 14-day quarantine on him, despite a duly completed questionnaire. The application mistakenly considers that she is not vaccinated against COVID-19 and that she must therefore isolate herself.
Once the user is registered as a quarantined patient, it becomes impossible to fill in the form again. This stalemate complicates any new travel plans for two weeks. “Every two weeks, ArriveCAN quarantines us,” she sums up.
Proof of vaccination on paper and the leniency of customs officers often make it possible to cross the border without too much difficulty. On the other hand, it is enough to come across a more fussy agent for yet another quarantine to be imposed. “Two weeks ago, the customs did not want to accept our explanations, with the written proof of our request for technical assistance, nor to look at our paper proof of vaccination, says Nancy Prada. She said it was up to us to fix the problem with ArriveCAN and she didn’t have to deal with the problem. »
Health Canada also shows flexibility and sometimes exonerates false patients. But, when the rule is applied, the forced isolation quickly becomes painful. A federal representative calls every day to verify the containment.
“The infected” must carry out screening tests in front of a nurse by videoconference and send her the swabs by post. If in doubt, a control officer comes knocking on the door of the quarantine place to monitor the loneliness. “But I don’t have COVID-19,” asserts Nancy Prada, exasperated by this treatment. “We have to be 14 days in quarantine just because we have been in the woods, on the edge of the lake, at home on the other side of the border and the ArriveCAN app is not working as it should, while people who have COVID-19 are in isolation for only 5 days. »
She points out that only the good faith of travelers guarantees the effectiveness of the measure, a vaccinated, sick and lying person being able to cross customs without problem.
The technological puzzle
These technical hiccups particularly exasperate the older ones, less keen on electronics. This is the case of Renée Joyal, a resident of Estrie, who often goes back and forth between Magog and neighboring Vermont.
She does not have a mobile phone and was taken aback the first time at customs. ” [Pour éviter la quarantaine], I would have had to go and buy a phone in the United States, configure it and everything… Can you imagine? »
She therefore had to isolate herself, too, for “a matter of formality”. On another trip, she tried to cross the border by submitting the required answers in advance and by computer. “When it came to sending [le formulaire]it bugged, ”laments the retiree.
The quarantine is also imposed “under the threat of a heavy fine”, recalls the career lawyer. “It really does look like electronic police surveillance. »
Nancy Prada’s octogenarian neighbors are “going crazy” with the app, she says. Without digital literacy, they think of selling their property because changing countries has become so complicated.
Canada Border Services Agency spokesperson Rebecca Purdy acknowledges that the app suffers from a few flaws, but says ” [qu’il] there have been no recent or widespread outages or critical incidents reported.”
An online form is available for “travellers who […] receive notifications from ArriveCAN in error,” she reassures.
A modernity that delays
The construction holiday begins in a few weeks, and the lines to return to Canada could be longer than usual due to ArriveCAN, warns the Customs and Immigration union.
Its president, Mark Weber, criticized this application a few days ago before the Standing Committee on International Trade. “Where a border post handled 60 cars per hour before, it now only handles 30, or even less. At the land borders, with regard to operations with travellers, this means that cars wait for hours, and are sometimes redirected to another more distant post,” he pleaded.
Nearly 25% of travelers do not complete the application correctly, he said.
ArriveCAN is here “at least” until September 30, the Public Health Agency of Canada confirmed last week.
No decision has been made on the long-term future of the application, nuance the office of the Minister of Public Security, Marco Mendicino. Its director of communications, Alexander Cohen, insists all the same on “the experience of crossing the border easier and more efficient” with ArriveCAN. “According to our most recent statistics, […] 94.10% of land travelers used [cette application] with success. »
Since the start of the isolation requirement for infected travelers on March 25, 2020, more than 4,700,000 travelers have had to be quarantined upon entering Canada.