OTTAWA — Canada is lifting its COVID-19 vaccination requirement for travel and federally regulated forms of transportation as of June 20, meaning railroads will no longer be required to mandate vaccinations for workers and rail passengers are no longer required to have been vaccinated.
Visitors to Canada will still have to be fully vaccinated or meet the requirements of an exemption. For domestic travelers, mask requirements on regulated trains and aircraft will remain in place.
Unvaccinated persons over the age of 12 have been barred from boarding trains or planes since October 2021, and in most cases were not allowed to show a negative COVID test result as a substitute.
“The mandatory vaccination requirement successfully mitigated the full impact of COVID-19 for travelers and workers in the transportation sector and provided broader protection to our communities,” Transportation Minister Omar Alghabra said in a statement. “…This action will support Canada’s transportation system as we recover from the pandemic.”
At the same time, the Canadian government said it will no longer work to advance proposed regulations that would require vaccination in all federally regulated workplaces, including those in transportation.
Officially, the requirement is being suspended, meaning it could be reinstated later in situations such as a surge in infections with a new variant of COVID-19. The move in part reflects a vaccination rate of almost 90% among those eligible and more than 80% overall.
The Canadian Travel and Tourism Roundtable said in a statement that it welcomes the decision as “another important step as the sector continues rebuilding over two years of lockdowns, restrictions, and setbacks.” The organization called on the government to lift all remaining COVID-19 restrictions “to streamline further and ease passenger experience,” and to lift the mask mandate on rail, air, and other federally regulated forms of transportation, saying it is “out of step with provincial public health agencies.”
Lawrence Sell – thanks for calling out Mr Landey on his comments about Canada. As a Canadian I get tired of some Americans referring to Canada as a dictatorship.
And those rules have given Canada a death rate from covid of abut 1/3rd the rate of the U.S. death rate.
And if I may stick up for Sweden, I suggest Mr Shoemaker see where Sweden stands with regard to socio/economic issues and see where America stands.
And now back to trains.
Times USA as had martial law:
Twice: Abraham Lincoln suspended habeus corpus. FDR’s military decreed four states (Arizona, California, Washington, Oregon) as war zones and interned Japanese nationals and Japanese Americans. Both events during wartime.
Times Canada has had martial law:
Twice. Under Trudeau pere and under Trudeau fils. Neither during wartime.
Charles, don’t forget how the Orange One attempted to make our great country a dictatorship and even suggested martial law on Jan. 6th 2021.
It seems like to be back to normal for the Canadian rail travel at last and to have the comforting possibility of discovering the one of a kind country by train again.
Have a nice trip/Bon voyage to the all interested ones while the lovely summertime awaits on the threshold in order to beat the monotony!
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
One word…..Sweden.
Maybe Charles would enjoy a sojourn in N. Korea. Then he could differentiate between Canada and a real totalitarian country.
Could we please stay on point..this is a blog for railfans.
Now Charles…………….
Still requiring masks?
There was a time when I enjoyed Canada, would go as often as I could. Not any longer, I’ll not go to that totalitarian nation.