OrangeMango

The good thing is that you might get the vaccine in the UK way sooner than in Canada. Whether Canada accepts that you have been vaccinated and are able to prove it in lieu of quarantine is however highly unlikely. They still want to force you to pay $2000 and it's certainly not the Royal York Hotel in Toronto.

darkneal

ha, im not due the jab here until the Autumn...not gonna wait till then!

DigitalGhost

Oh they'd have no choice really. It's not my fault and the alternative for them would be restarting the recruitment process which could take months. I've looked at it today and I could possibly bring my move forward to Valentine's weekend but not any sooner than that realistically. Even that is pushing it because it only gives me 2 weeks to prepare and I'd budgeted for 3.

scrubbedexpat091

That explains the sudden announcement from Air Transat a few days ago, at least the airlines got advance notice.

Sucks for anyone who left and now might be stranded, but they were warned many times not to travel outside Canada.

DigitalGhost

No, they're running repatriation flights for them. It's mostly new immigrants, people travelling for family reasons and returning students etc who are going to suffer.

Siouxie

I'd suggest anyone who needs to be here gets a flight asap!

https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/ontario-t...licy-1.5287384

https://www.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=2129281&jwsource=cl

DigitalGhost

So in other words, those folks who flew off to lap up the winter sun in Cancun or Punta Cana and whom Trudeau hinted caused the whole policy to be created in the first place are likely going to be the same people least affected by it. They'll all be repatriated by Transat and Sunwing over the next week or so.

Meanwhile people immigrating from parts of Europe, Asia and elsewhere who have already invested thousands and are preparing to upheave their whole lives over the next couple of months suddenly have to deal with more uncertainty and find thousands of extra dollars from somewhere.

You really couldn't make it up.

OrangeMango

So, those tourists who get repatriated by Transat and Sunwings not only get the flight for free, but also don't have to pay the $ 2000, whilst immigrants or citizens moving back to Canada get to pay.

I honestly think it's a charter violation to charge every Canadian entering Canada $ 2000 for 3 nights in an airport hotel. I truly hope this gets challenged legally.

I also don't think it's Trudeau's idea. I think Ford put him up for this. I never thought a conservative politician can be so out of line.

DigitalGhost

I think this is to prevent the invocation of the emergencies act. Rather than using the law to prevent Canadians from leaving the country for non-essential purposes like the UK and Australia have done, Canada is looking to work around its own constitution by punishing those landing for the first time or seeking re-entry instead.

I don't know how you can really invoke this against refugees though, especially if they extend it from airports to include the land border. Canada isn't Australia with thousands of square miles of salt water keeping it separated from the nearest other country. It shares the longest land border on Earth.

So far as I can see, Ford is forcing all international passengers travelling through Toronto to undergo a covid test immediately and isn't waiting for the federal government to enact these measures. What isn't 100% clear is what will happen to you if you test positive after landing in Toronto at the moment.

OrangeMango

I thought that if you were positive you'd end up in the same place as if you didn't demonstrate an adequate quarantine plan. You would have been taken to an undisclosed hotel around the airport for 14 days. In the case if your infection gets worse you'd gotten treatment. If that treatment was in the hotel room, or at a hospital would probably tend of the severity of the infection. Up to now the government mandated hotel near the airport was free of charge, at least according to my knowledge.

I still don't think that under the Canadian charter of rights and freedoms they can charge a citizen $2000 just to re-enter the country, no matter if he / she is returning from life abroad, or just for a vacation ( which one shouldn't take anyway these days). I think this matter, if they do what they planned to, will end up in court at some point.

For immigrants there is the right of landing fee to pay, plus on top of that it'll be another $2000, and if you're looking at a family of four, you can imagine the cost.

I also don't know how they came up with the amount of $2000? It's another question. Why not $ 3000 or $ 1000?

DigitalGhost

Worryingly today they said the cost would be at least $2000 per person which means as of right now they can charge you whatever the hell they like.

But yeah, your average family of new immigrants with 2 parents and 3 kids could be looking at a minimum bill of 10 grand. Considering the majority of immigrants to Canada come from India these days, for some that could constitute an annual salary.

When I looked into what a government "quarantine facility" meant, it seemed to be a hotel room and over the last 11 months, some returning Canadians have been placed in hotel suites at no cost to themselves. One guy returning from South America after 10 years and with no quarantine plan said it was the most luxury he'd ever experienced in his life. It's possible they're now trying to recuperate those costs.

If anyone who fails the test on arrival ends up spending the full 2 weeks in a hotel at no extra cost then suddenly the $2k figure starts to make more sense. The many basically end up subsidising the bill for the few.

Siouxie

At the moment you would be required to isolate for 14 days. https://travel.gc.ca/travel-covid/tr...ions/isolation

Once the new rules come into place, if you test positive during your 3 day hotel stay you will be taken to a Government Installation where you will remain for 11 days at minimum.. but that isn't in place yet.
See news release: (Official) https://www.canada.ca/en/transport-c...al-travel.html
The testing on arrival at own cost is new.

However!!!

Toronto testing starts on Monday 1st February.

https://news.ontario.ca/en/release/6...-19-variants-1

DigitalGhost

Am I the only person who finds that absolutely terrifying?

Interestingly that press release mainly refers to non-essential travel. With that in mind, shouldn't new immigrants and those referring for work or family commitments really be exempt? Or at least from the associated cost anyway.

Jerseygirl

Are you really, really, 100% sure you want to live here? Today there is talk of lockdown restrictions in the GTA to go on until at least June. We seem to be well behind most other developed countries for the vaccine roll out.

DigitalGhost

Honestly, no and I did mention that a few posts back. I was happy to undergo the 2 weeks of mandatory quarantine and even content to get preflight test a couple of days before departure, with all the additional uncertainty that brings but this really seems like a step too far.