Canadian Chamber welcomes reopening of United States land border and urge governments to provide implementation plan

(OTTAWA) – October 13, 2021 – The Canadian Chamber of Commerce’s President and CEO, Perrin Beatty, issued the following statement in response to news that the United States Department of Homeland Security will reopen the land border to non-essential travel by fully vaccinated Canadians.

“It is very welcome news that the United States Government will permit fully vaccinated Canadians to enter the country through land border points of entry as of next month. This change in policy corrects the mismatch of Canadians being able to fly into Buffalo or Seattle but not drive.

While this development provides welcome relief for businesses, the job is not finished. The two governments need to work together to ensure that fully vaccinated Canadians with mixed-dose combinations are eligible for entry into the United States, as well as providing an interoperable, internationally-recognized vaccination certification system to ensure border infrastructure can handle the increased volumes of travellers.

With non-essential travel soon to be permitted in both directions across the land border, it is critical for Canada to ensure our border policies reflect increasing vaccination rates. We urge the Canadian government to amend the requirements for a pre-departure PCR test before arriving in Canada and replace the blanket non-essential travel advisory with country-specific advisories, in line with standard practice.

Businesses and the Canadians they employ have made many sacrifices during the course of the pandemic. We know that we will unfortunately have to learn to live with COVID globally for the foreseeable future. With appropriate measures we can both protect ourselves against the disease and regain more normal lives and a more open economy. We need a targeted and measured approach to the border that recognizes that reality.”

About the Canadian Chamber of Commerce – Because Business Matters

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce helps build the businesses that support our families, our communities and our country. We do this by influencing government policy, by providing essential business services and by connecting businesses to information they can use, to opportunities for growth and to a network of local chambers, businesses, decision-makers and peers from across the country, in every sector of the economy and at all levels of government, as well as internationally. We are unapologetic in our support for business and the vital role it plays in building and sustaining our great nation.

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For more information, please contact:

Phil Taylor
ptaylor@chamber.ca