The Minister of Transport, the Honourable Marc Garneau, issued an Interim Order formalizing new COVID-19 testing requirements for all air travellers coming to Canada, providing additional guidance to airline operators and the travelling public regarding the new pre-departure testing requirement that was announced on December 31.
The Government of Canada has multiple measures in place to protect the health and safety of Canadians, and to help prevent air travel from being a source of further introduction and spread of COVID-19 and new variants of the virus into Canada. This Interim Order supports COVID-19 health requirements made by Canada’s Minister of Health under the Quarantine Act.
Effective midnight on Jan. 7, 2021, regardless of citizenship, all travellers five years of age or older must provide proof of a negative laboratory test result for COVID-19 to the airline prior to boarding a flight to Canada. The test must be performed using one of two types of COVID-19 tests–either a molecular polymerase chain reaction (PCR) or Loop-mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP)–and must be conducted within 72 hours of the traveller’s scheduled departure to Canada.
All travellers coming to Canada must present this information at the time of boarding. Failure to do so will mean an automatic denial of boarding by the airline operating the flight to Canada.
Once travellers arrive in Canada, Canada Border Services officers will question and observe them for any indication that they may be ill. These travellers will be referred to Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) officials for further assessment, screening and questioning. Officers will apply great scrutiny to travellers’ quarantine plans while ensuring that they are admissible to Canada. PHAC works closely with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and provincial law enforcement agencies to verify the compliance of returning travellers.
All existing restrictions to travel to Canada from the United States and other countries by foreign nationals remain in place. The Government of Canada continues to enforce and strengthen those measures as needed, and as the global situation evolves.
