The Trudeau government says it’s working overtime to solve passport logjams for Canadians. Airport congestion has hogged most of the headlines, but Canadians eager to travel also have been waiting in long, long lineups for passports or passport renewals. Karina Gould, Minister of Children, Families and Social Development, issued the following statement today: “After two years of travel restrictions, Canada and many other countries around the world are seeing a significant surge in demand for passports. As is the case in many countries, the size and suddenness of this surge has created delays for Canadians in getting the passport services Read more
Justin Trudeau
Canadian Tourism Minister Randy Boissonnault says it could take weeks for the federal government to ease congestion at the nation’s airports. Tempers have been boiling over for some time as Canadians revert to 2019 travel patterns, only to be faced with long lineups at security and customs and a shortage of staff in the tourism and travel industry. Speaking to CTV’s Question Period, Boissonnault said he’s not happy with reports of Canadians waiting hours to get through travel checkpoints, particularly at Toronto Pearson International Airport. “I’m going to be very blunt. I’m not happy with the situation. I don’t want Read more
Canadian travel and tourism experts says Ottawa needs to permanently remove arrival testing and other COVID-19 restrictions. The Trudeau government on Friday said it will temporarily suspend random COVID-19 testing of incoming international passengers at Canadian airports. Random testing at airports will be temporarily suspended at all airports starting on Saturday, June 11 until June 30, for those who are fully vaccinated. But the government said the rule changes are only for a few weeks, and that testing will continue after June 30, albeit off-site and not on airport property. Officials said they need to continue random testing so they Read more
The Canadian government is temporarily halting random COVID-19 testing of incoming international passengers at Canadian airports. Random testing at airports will be temporarily suspended at all airports starting on Saturday, June 11 until June 30, for those who are fully vaccinated, according to a joint statement fromTourism Minister Randy Boissonnault, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra, Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos and Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino. Unvaccinated travellers will still be tested at airports until the end of June. As of July 1, all testing, including for unvaccinated travellers, will be performed off-site, officials said. But the halt is only temporary, and officials said Read more
Wait times for security continue to decrease at all major airports, and only three per cent of all passengers at Pearson and Vancouver International Airport are now waiting more than 30 minutes in line, the Trudeau government said in a statement today. Omar Alghabra, Minister of Transport, Jean-Yves Duclos, Minister of Health, Marco Mendicino, Minister of Public Safety, and Randy Boissonnault, Minister of Tourism and Associate Minister of Finance, issued this statement today to provide an update on actions the Government of Canada and industry partners are taking to reduce wait times at Canadian airports: “The Government of Canada recognizes Read more
