Ottawa still hasn’t delivered on promise to test all travellers entering Canada from outside the U.S.

We have full confidence that this is going to unroll quickly over the next few days, said Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos at a news conference on Nov. 30.

At the time, the federal government said it devised the new testing policy to help stop the spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant. It suggested that all vaccinated travellers entering from the U.S. could also face mandatory arrival testing — if the Omicron variant started to surge in the United States.

But more than 30 days later, all fully vaccinated travellers to Canada still only have to take an arrival test if they’re randomly selected.

Meanwhile, the Omicron variant has spread across the globe including in the U.S., and is infecting both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals. In Canada, the surge has sparked new lockdowns,  and labour shortages , and is straining the healthcare system.

Marcela Hart of Ottawa said she was surprised when she and her husband — both fully vaccinated — weren’t selected for an arrival test after flying to Toronto from Mexico on Dec. 26.

We were just asked a few questions of where we had been, what we were doing and off we went, said Hart who had travelled to Mexico with her husband and three-year-old son to visit family.

We did have an unvaccinated child with us. We just kind of assumed we would be — almost — a target to get tested, she said.

Government responds

Despite the November announcement, Canada’s policies haven’t changed since Aug. 9 when the government mandated that all unvaccinated recreational travellers over the age of four take a COVID-19 test upon arrival, and that fully vaccinated travellers — including from the U.S. — take one if randomly selected.

The tests are in addition to the pre-departure test all travellers must undergo before leaving for Canada.

The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) did not address questions about why the government is taking so long to shift to testing all non-U.S. foreign arrivals, and if all travellers from the U.S. would also face mandatory arrival testing.

Spokesperson André Gagnon said the government has significantly increased arrival testing resources this month to the point where it can now administer more than 20,000 tests daily at airports.

On average, 45,000 air passengers entered Canada daily between Dec. 20-26, according to the latest data from the Canada Border Services Agency .

According to the most recent government data, between Dec. 12 and Dec.18, 656 fully vaccinated international travellers tested positive after being randomly selected for arrival testing. While the overall positivity rate is low at close to one per cent, it has climbed from the previous week. The government warns the data is incomplete as some test results have yet to be tallied.

Ideally, all travellers should be tested upon arrival and that rule should have taken effect long before Omicron spread across Canada, said Julianne Piper, a research fellow and project coordinator with the Pandemics & Borders (new window) research project at Simon Fraser University.

She suspects the government is struggling to fully implement arrival testing due to a lack of resources.

Now we’re at a point where even domestically, testing and contact tracing capacities are overwhelmed, said Piper. Probably what we’re seeing is challenges in implementing [arrival testing] after a decision was made, unfortunately, a little bit too late to have a significant impact on the Omicron variant in Canada.

Ideally, all travellers should be tested upon arrival and that rule should have taken effect long before Omicron spread across Canada, said Julianne Piper, a research fellow and project coordinator with the Pandemics & Borders research project at Simon Fraser University.

She suspects the government is struggling to fully implement arrival testing due to a lack of resources.

Now we’re at a point where even domestically, testing and contact tracing capacities are overwhelmed, said Piper. Probably what we’re seeing is challenges in implementing [arrival testing] after a decision was made, unfortunately, a little bit too late to have a significant impact on the Omicron variant in Canada.

Sophia Harris · CBC News