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The Canadian Travel & Tourism Roundtable called on the federal government of Canada on June 14 to release a plan to reopen borders and the economy.
Business groups pushed their agenda of having a single national policy approach to the border reopening strategy. They expect the plan to clarify & integrate policy on vaccination certification, the international border, and unvaccinated children.
The Canadian Travel & Tourism Roundtable has representatives from airports, airlines, hotels, and chambers of commerce across the country. The group is committed to safely restart the hard-hit sector.
Beth Potter, President & CEO of the Tourism Industry Association of Canada, said,
“The Canadian travel and tourism industry — and the Canada-U.S. border — has been effectively closed since March 2020. A holistic Canada-wide plan is needed to provide certainty to businesses and Canadians. We are seeing provinces fill in the gaps that have been created by the absence of a federal reopening plan and this will create confusion for travellers.”
A comprehensive reopening plan for international travel is yet to be released by the federal government which is hurting businesses in Canada as they are predominantly dependent on foreign skilled immigration.
Canada’s Stance On Border Reopening Until Now
Business leaders passively welcomed the G7 agenda for a travel reopening plan to welcome fully vaccinated foreign nationals who want to come to Canada.
At the G7 summit held earlier this month, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada agreed with other leaders of the richest world economies to devise “a set of common standards for travel including… recognition of vaccination status including exemptions and comparable criteria for when responsive measures may be required.”
However, Canada remained the only country in the grouping without yet announcing a comprehensive reopening plan. Earlier in June, the COVID-19 Testing and Screening Expert Advisory Panel advised the federal government to start easing quarantine restrictions.
Earlier this month, the public health department announced its intention to remove the mandatory hotel quarantine requirement for fully vaccinated Canadians and reduce quarantine upon the results of an arrivals test. A parliamentary committee on the impact of immigration in Canada made its report public last month which included innovative and practical suggestions like making Canadian immigration all-inclusive, digitizing the intake system, newer PR pathways for essential workers, and more, to implement in the coming term.
Some experts comment over Canada’s silence as a hallmark of empathizing with immigration from low-middle income or poor countries where vaccination rates are still poor. Having a mechanism of vaccine passport-like document will hurt their chances of qualifying for immigration.
Travel and Tourism is a $105 billion sector in Canada that employs millions including immigrant groups like international students, semi-skilled workers. The industry together contributed about 2 per cent to Canada’s gross domestic product. With a reopening plan expected to be announced soon, aspiring immigrants can prepare themselves in advance by consulting a professional immigration consultancy. You may be also pleased to know that the demand for healthcare professionals in Canada has increased in recent years.
Check out top opportunities for Engineers in Canada.
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