Ford and Tory Call on Feds to Enact Tighter Travel Restrictions

Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Toronto Mayor John Tory called for new measures from the Federal Government to slow the deadly spread of COVID-19.

At Queen’s Park on Monday, Premier Ford urged the federal government to “close down any travel coming into Canada outside of residents or citizens of Canada,” in addition to mandatory testing for anyone coming into the country because of more contagious variants of COVID-19 that are circulating around the world.

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“There’s no reason we need people coming in,” Ford said.

“This has to stop. It’s absolutely critical,” he added, questioning how many cases could be coming in every day. “We need to be quick,” he said.

Ford and Tory were both clearly upset at the Federal Government’s lack of measures curbing international travel. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said last week he is open to tighter restrictions but suggested existing measures are still effective.

In an interview with CBC’s Power and Politics, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said they are considering the issue very seriously and hinted that one of the options on the table is mandatory hotel quarantines for air travellers who return from non-essential trips abroad.

"I very much understand and I'm very sympathetic to the view that, with the virus raging around the world, we need to be sure our borders are really, really secure. And that's something that we're working on really urgently now."

On Sunday, Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau told CBC on Sunday that the Liberal government could invoke the federal Emergencies Act in a bid to limit travel.

"We are looking at all potential actions to make sure that we can achieve our aims," said Garneau, formerly the Canadian Transport Minister. "The Emergencies Act is something you don't consider lightly. But we are first and foremost concerned about the health and safety of Canadians. And if we can do that in a way that we have the regulatory power to do it, we will do it.”

"We will be telling you more in the days to come," Trudeau said.