Travellers coming into Canada by the land border can benefit from a one-time exemption if they forget to submit their information through the ArriveCan application, the National Post reports.
Ottawa quietly made the change in May for Canadian citizens and permanent residents, and extended it to all foreign nationals, including American citizens, at the end of the month of July, confirmed the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) on Friday.
CBSA spokesperson Judith Gadbois-St-Cyr told the Post the measures are “temporary” for fully vaccinated travellers and that the rules were changed to “provide more flexibility” to those “who may have been unaware of the requirement to submit their mandatory health information via ArriveCan”.
“After this one-time exemption, fully vaccinated Canadian citizens, permanent residents and persons registered under the Indian Act who do not submit their information through ArriveCAN will be subject to quarantine and testing and may also face fines,” Gadbois-St-Cyr told the Post.
Critics have blasted the ArriveCAN app as an ineffective, unnecessary tool that hampers tourism. Border city mayors have been especially critical, saying the app discourages Americans from crossing the border into Vancouver, Niagara Falls, and other areas that rely on U.S. visitor spending.
The Daily Hive reports that a recent ArriveCAN app glitch incorrectly that told fully vaccinated travellers to quarantine affected more than 10,000 people.
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In July I crossed the border from Windsor to Detroit at the ambassador bridge to go to a play in Detroit. I was gone a total of about five hours. When I crossed back I was never asked for my arriveCan. I had forgotten to fill it out. I wasn’t asked for proof of vaccine. I was asked for my license plate number. Since I’ve been back I have been called every day several times over and over with a threatening message saying I should be isolating or could be charged. I am a senior and I had the four vaccine shots to already. This was my first time not using the arriveCan just because I forgot. Last week, which was two or three weeks after I had returned from the United States, I had to do the virtual day eight test. Then I had to drive a very far distance to very specific place in Windsor to drop off the results. I have never had Covid and I’m fully vaccinated. And I did not get a break as this article indicates I was entitled to. Very very frustrating. But I’ll tell you I will prepare my arriveCan next time. I will do it even when they say I don’t need to. Because I don’t trust them. And they put me through hell the last three or four weeks.