Ottawa reversed itself twice in a day before the trucker vaccine rule took effect
In January 2022, days before the Jan. 15 start date, a CBSA message seemed to ease the rule for Canadian drivers, and ministers then said it had been sent in error.
In mid-January 2022, cross-border truck drivers spent the final days before Canada's vaccine requirement for their sector trying to work out what the rule actually meant.
On Nov. 19, 2021, Ottawa had announced that, starting Jan. 15, 2022, essential service providers such as truck drivers would need to be fully vaccinated to enter Canada. In the days before it took effect, the message changed twice.
What happened
- On the evening of Jan. 12, 2022, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) said it was preparing to turn unvaccinated U.S. drivers away at the border, but appeared to relax the new requirements for Canadian drivers. That came hours after officials had met trucking groups to reinforce the mandate.
- Late on Jan. 13, the federal ministers of health, transport and public safety issued a joint statement saying nothing had changed and that the information shared the day before had been "provided in error."
The rules as confirmed
According to the Jan. 13 statement:
- Canadian drivers who were not fully vaccinated could not be refused entry, because citizens, permanent residents and people registered under the Indian Act enter Canada by right. From Jan. 15, though, they faced pre-entry, arrival and Day 8 testing, plus quarantine.
- Unvaccinated or partially vaccinated foreign drivers arriving from the U.S. by land would be directed back to the United States.
- To count as fully vaccinated, foreign drivers needed two doses of an accepted vaccine, or one dose of Janssen (Johnson & Johnson), with the second dose at least 14 full days before entry, and had to submit their information through ArriveCAN.
The U.S. was widely expected to start enforcing its own vaccine requirement for cross-border drivers on Jan. 22.
Industry reaction
The Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) estimated that 12,000 to 16,000 of the 120,000 Canadian drivers who cross the border could be lost because of the rule, and again asked both governments to set a later enforcement date.
Mike Millian, president of the Private Motor Truck Council of Canada, said some drivers had been dispatched on Jan. 12 believing they would not have to quarantine when they returned. He asked why it had taken the government 16 hours to fix what it called an error.