Canada/US border communities call for elimination of vaccine requirements

This week's vaccine mandate travel announcement by the the Federal Ministers makes clear that the federal government does not understand border communities or border businesses.

“The tourism industry accounts for $105 billion dollars in Canada, and 40,000 jobs are directly related to tourism in Niagara. We supported the federal government restrictions for years because it was the right thing to do.

The science is now telling us that these restrictions at the border are no longer serving us. The restrictions are no longer helping us,” says Jim Diodati, Mayor of Niagara Falls.

“Our border businesses are not being allowed to recover. We are still 50% down from pre-pandemic sales and this is directly related to the ArriveCan App and vaccination requirements at the land border. We know that these restrictive measures are hurting Canadian businesses more than they are helping keep Canadians safe,” comments Barbara Barrett, Executive Director at Frontier Duty Free Association.

“Every border mayor can tell you horror stories about the border and the inconsistencies of the border measures. It’s arbitrary, we took the required steps at the start of the pandemic, but we’re being punished,” adds Mike Bradley, Mayor of Sarnia.

Border business representatives are calling on the government to eliminate the inconsistent approach that has decimated border communities and businesses for over two years.