Mayors in Canadian border cities say the federal goverment’s ArriveCAN app is discouraging American visitors from coming into the country. They’re asking Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to scrap the program.
What’s happening right now is Americans are showing up in the minivan with their family at the border with no knowledge of the ArriveCAN app,” Niagara Falls Mayor Jim Diodati said. “There’s a lineup of cars behind them. They can’t get into the country.”
Diodati said his city depends on tourism. He estimated that some 10 million Americans would cross the border into Niagara Falls, Ontario every year before the pandemic hit.
“We typically have a log jam,” Diodati told reporters. “This year, with this uncertainty and the confusion and the labyrinth of rules at the border with this ArriveCAN app, it is going to be a disaster at the border if the Americans even choose to come.”
The Trudeau government on Tuesday announced that unvaccinated travellers will be able to board Canadian planes and trains beginning June 20. But they said the ArriveCAN app, which can be filled out on your smart phone and also on-line, is staying, at least for now.
Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley said the app has been a disaster and is no longer needed.
“When you’re riding a dead horse, dismount,” he said. “That’s what the federal government needs to do.”
“We all supported the federal government with all the restrictions at the border; we stood shoulder-to-shoulder with them to make sure that we are safe,” Diodati said. “But the science is now telling us that having these restrictions at the border (is) no longer serving us. In the beginning, it was to keep the virus out — well, it’s clearly here. It’s not doing what it was originally intended to do.”
