Canada set a Jan. 15 vaccine requirement for cross-border truck drivers
In November 2021, Ottawa said essential workers including truckers would need to be fully vaccinated to enter, and CTA warned thousands of drivers could leave cross-border work.
On Nov. 19, 2021, the federal government announced that starting Jan. 15, 2022, several groups of travellers who had been exempt from entry requirements, including essential service providers such as truck drivers, would need to be fully vaccinated with an approved vaccine to enter Canada.
Under the announcement, unvaccinated or partially vaccinated foreign nationals who did not qualify for a limited exception would be refused entry after Jan. 15. The announcement came weeks after the U.S. had proposed its own vaccine requirement for Canadian cross-border drivers, set for January 2022.
Trucking's warning
The Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) said it would press both countries for more time. It said:
- about 70 per cent of the $648 billion in Canada-U.S. trade moved by truck
- about 120,000 Canadian drivers and 40,000 U.S.-licensed drivers handled that north-south trade
- by its conservative estimate, 10 to 20 per cent of Canadian cross-border drivers (12,000 to 22,000) and 40 per cent of U.S. drivers coming into Canada (16,000) could leave the cross-border system if the mandate took effect in January
- there were already more than 18,000 truck driver job vacancies in Canada as of November 2021
"We are extremely concerned there is a perfect storm brewing," said CTA president Stephen Laskowski. CTA asked both governments to move the Jan. 15 deadline. It also noted that Ottawa planned to verify drivers' vaccination status through ArriveCAN.