Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley said the implementation was a disaster and is no longer needed. “When you ride a dead horse, get off,” he said. “That’s what the federal government needs to do.” Niagara Falls Mayor Jim Diondati said his community depended on tourism and the 10 million people who crossed the border each year before the pandemic. “Typically we have a blockage of logs,” Diodati told reporters. “This year, with this uncertainty and the confusion and maze of border rules with this ArriveCAN application, it will be a disaster at the border if the Americans even choose to come.” The ArriveCAN app was introduced during the pandemic to allow travelers to report their travels and vaccination status. Ottawa requires travelers to use the ArriveCAN or mobile app desktop version submit their travel and health information related to COVID-19 before arriving in Canada. Travelers who do not can afford it 14-day quarantine and even a $ 5,000 fine. Calls to withdraw the application come a day after the federal government announced it was easing some restrictions introduced during the pandemic. He did not announce that he was removing the ArriveCAN application. NDP lawmaker Richard Cannings, whose British Columbia driven to the South Okanagan-West Kootenay border crossings, said trade was down 95 percent for some of his businesses. “We are really dependent on this cross-border traffic at normal times,” he said. Cannings said he would like to see the government build a system that will keep Canadians safe while allowing businesses to continue. Cannings said some of his constituents found the ArriveCAN application difficult to use. “My voters are very worried because a lot of seniors do not have phones, they do not know what an application is and yet they have to produce it when they return to Canada,” he said.
The government “punished the border communities”: a critic
Barbara Barrett is the executive director of the Frontier Duty Free Association, Canada’s land-based duty free association. He said border communities were “the toughest of the toughest”. “Border communities during the pandemic have been punished by strict federal measures that have not been applied to either air or domestic travel,” he said. “Inexplicably, this federal government has punished border communities with inconsistent and inconsistent border travel rules.” Barrett said Tuesday’s “timid” government announcement showed that Ottawa did not understand the plight of border communities. “US tourism-dependent cross-border businesses are still 50 percent below 2019,” he said. Diodati said the last two years have been disastrous for tourism in the Niagara region. People line the streets in the tourist areas of Niagara Falls, Ontario on Friday, July 16, 2021. (Peter Power / The Canadian Press) He called on the government to take the extra money it plans to spend on the ArriveCAN app and give it to municipalities to help them attract tourists. “What is happening right now is that Americans are showing up in their minibus with their family at the border without knowing the ArriveCAN app,” Diodati said. “They do not roam, they can not download the application, there is a number of cars behind them, they can not enter the country. “If you upset your customers, they come back and tell all their friends and a lot of people are bypassing Canada and that will have a long-term impact on that country.” Diodati said he talks regularly with mayors across the border in the United States
American companies have the advantage now: mayor
“They like the situation right now,” he said. “Canadians can easily and freely go to the US and spend all of our hard-earned income. opportunity to spend all our money in the US, but we do not reciprocate “. Pauline Quinlan, a former mayor of Bromont, Quebec, said the application was unnecessary and discouraged tourism in her area. Bradley said border community mayors used to meet regularly with the federal government during the pandemic. Now, he said, their opinion is not sought and the government does not meet their needs. “It’s like a booze in our communities that just squeezes the economy and we have to go the other way,” he said. Officials from the Canadian Border Services, the Public Health Service of Canada and business groups are due to testify before the House of Commons Standing Committee on International Trade later Wednesday.
