Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will discuss a plan to strengthen border measures, including potentially closing the Canadian border to foreign nationals, on a phone call with premiers Tuesday night, according to a senior government source.
The source, who CTV News is not identifying because they were not authorized to speak about the new restrictions, says potential new travel restrictions could come into place before Christmas and would be a “one-sized fits all approach.”
The federal government has been criticized for having complicated travel restrictions for Canadians looking to return home from African countries that had extensive restrictions placed upon them.
A different source tells CTV News that an official announcement is not expected this evening but federal officials will likely publicly announce the new restrictions tomorrow.
Earlier Tuesday, the prime minister spoke with British Columbia Premier John Horgan about the need for provinces to increase their booster capacity and vaccinating children to help blunt the spread of the Omicron variant.
On Friday, Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said that Canadians who travel abroad should be prepared for “hassles and delays” when they returned home. “Canadians who are thinking of travelling abroad need to be warned that the situation abroad is both risky and unstable,’ said Duclos.
Chief Public Health Office Dr. Theresa Tam has stated that community spread of the new variant has already started and that Omicron cases “could rapidly escalate in the days to come.”
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