Travel chaos continues in Canada at airports and other points of entry, as volumes have surged after the easing of COVID-19 restrictions. Canadian airports such as Pearson International in Toronto are seeing unprecedented delays, due to a lack of staff and the required ArriveCan app for entering the country.
While we’ve heard of calls for the ArriveCan app to be removed, the latter continues to cause delays at borders for customs agents, says the head of the Customs and Immigration Union.
President of the union, Mark Weber, told The Globe and Mail, “what we’re seeing specifically on the customs side is really long delays for travellers to clear customs when they’re coming into the country.”
He noted severe staff shortages plus the ArriveCan app itself, as once again being the culprit for delays. The app takes “quite a bit of time” for travellers to fill out, while it’s also difficult for non-tech savvy folks to use. ArriveCan also still asks travellers for the address of where they are staying, despite no contact tracing being required anymore.
Canadian airports are now “an international embarrassment,” according to Melissa Lantsman, Conservative transport critic “Conservatives continue to call for a return to prepandemic travel rules and staffing levels to help alleviate the delays and disarray we continue to see at Canada’s airports, including ending the mandatory usage of the ArriveCan app,” she said.
The NDP also noted Liberal government failed to hire enough staff ahead of the return of travel, after COVID-19 restrictions were removed.
Despite the criticism, the federal government says the ArriveCan app is not causing delays, but is actually making travel “easier and more efficient, allowing those entering Canada to electronically submit their information before arriving at the border,” according to a spokesperson for Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino, pointing out app usage is “extremely high” and internal stats show 99.7% of air travellers use the app, with land usage similarly high at 94%.
“As far as border officers are concerned, the last few months have shown that ArriveCAN neither facilitates cross-border travel nor does it improve operational efficiency. In fact, it does exactly the opposite,” said Weber at the time.
But, the spokesperson for the Public Safety Minister told the Globe, “from too many flights to not enough staff, there is no single reason for these delays – but the ArriveCan app is not a major factor,” pointing out that travel volumes are surging globally, not just in Canada. So it’s just in your head, folks.
Recently, the federal government added the Advance CBSA Declaration feature to the ArriveCan app, a tool that was previously only available on the web. The advance declaration feature is only available at two locations in Canada: Toronto Pearson and Vancouver International airports.
Want to see more of our stories on Google?
P.S. Want to keep this site truly independent? Support us by buying us a beer, treating us to a coffee, or shopping through Amazon here. Links in this post are affiliate links, so we earn a tiny commission at no charge to you. Thanks for supporting independent Canadian media!
So what’s the excuse for domestic travel? Do we need an app to blame for domestic travel?
Clearly you don’t understand logistics. It’s a ripple effect, whenever an international flight is delayed, the airline has to shift employees to manage that flight, possibly causing delays on the domestic flight. Same would’ve been true vice-versa. Difference here is that it’s totally preventable, only not for a Liberal agenda.
They discriminate Seniors for not having smartphone or laptops using our taxpayer’s money to fund $25 million to keep App active.
Canadian Border Agent refuse to see my vaccine papers because they see it legit vailed instead they direct us to uploaded vaxs paper to the ArriveCan app.
Who knows how many people uploaded fake paper in the App have went trough.
crossing U.S agent At land border accept our VAX papers but our Canadian agent don’t. because they all wanted in App 🤦🏽♂️
Remove ArriveCan App everyone sick tired of it. 🤬
By seniors, are you referring to yourself? How the hell are you able to post on disqus with all those emojis in every fukcing sentence and not know how to upload a document in an app?
I’m genuinely curious as to how one is harder than the other?
Do you actually have zero apps on your phone or are you intentionally tech-adept just with ArriveCAN?
I genuinely want to know what is causing you to self-inflict so much undue pain and inconvenience?
There are debilitating staffing shortages affecting every aspect of the air travel industry. Most of the staff were laid off or forced into early retirement during the pandemic and they haven’t ever been able to hire back sufficient numbers of staff. Combine that with a surge in air travel as the pandemic wanes and you have your answer.
Yes. I totally agree. Just frustrating that there are those that blame an app for the issues. Time to get rid of app, but won’t solve the issue at hand. We need more security, baggage handlers, pilots, etc. I’m tired of the finger pointing and we the public suffer.
To be fair, the app isn’t helping. All the union, airlines and others on the ground are saying is that, at best, it’s aggravating an ever worsening problem.
The more useless steps and requirements they add or keep, the slower it’s getting. It’s time to start looking for bottlenecks that can be removed instead of keeping them out of spite.
Bingo.
Trudeau and his anti-science vax mandates caused massive staff shortages. While the rest of the world reopened and we had months to learn from this, he and his groupies did nothing and learned nothing. We start to open up, with vax mandates still in place, meaning severe staff shortages, and somehow he’s dumbfounded about why there are long line up.
As expect, he and his mindless groupies, try to blame travellers, airlines and anyone else they can think of. All to defect from them being the obvious cause.
How? If staff shortages were a result of layoffs *before* the vaccine was available?
HOW was the vax mandate anti-science if it was recommended by scientists?
The mass layoffs of 2020 were being rehired starting in 2021. By feb ofb this year they were back to 65% of 2019 staff levels and were continuing to hire.
Vax mandates were supported by some scientists and rejected by others. The scientific data says that the vax has not reduced transmission, which is what the government claimed. That’s anti-science. At that point, they’re only meant to punish, and are therefore political and no scientific.
How? If staff shortages were a result of layoffs *before* the vaccine was available?
HOW was the vax mandate anti-science if it was recommended by scientists?
Airlines and airports laid off up to 80% of their staff during pandemic, because a lot less people were travelling. That was by far the main cause. They wanted to protect their bottom line. Government mask and vaccine mandates played much smaller role in that by laying off those who didn’t comply.
And they started hiring many back in 2021. As of February 2022, they were back to 65% of their 2019 staff levels and still hiring.
The true reason for the border delays is simply short staff and mismanagement. The airlines complained at first it was the vaccine requirement. Then the government dropped that and the issues remained. Now they are complaining about something else. It’s everyone else’s fault but their own.
People are pretending the pandemic is over (spoiler – it is not), therefore you have a whole lot of people that are out sick.
No actually they’ve always been saying it was arrivecan and that was bundled in with “vaccine things”. They wanted it dropped same time as the other stuff. Arrivecan is the problem. Something like 60%-70% of travelers don’t even have it set up and the border agents have to walk them thru it for 20 mins a person. Making 10 hours lines. You don’t know what your talking about.
First of all, it’s *you’re*, so I certainly question your education level.
Second, in the article it stated that “99.7% of air travellers use the app, with land usage similarly high at 94%.” Perhaps you could explain where your “60%-70% of travelers don’t even have it set up” data comes from? Do you have extra information that the government doesn’t know?
If travellers are NOT using ArriveCan, they NEED to educate themselves before travelling. You wouldn’t try to get on a plane without a passport now, would you?
It would help if you read what he posted.
The fact that 94% of land crossers might use it does not, in anyway, invalid his statement that 60%-70% don’t have it set up. You ignorantly, or dishonestly, left off the rest of his sentence, that they then need the border agents to help set it up. Both can be true, they are not mutually exclusive.
What were you saying about education levels? Something about glass houses?
Sorry, you’re mistaken. Much of the delays are the result of short staffing. Many of the airline and airport workers were either forced into early retirement, or laid off and have since found other work. Pretty much every department is struggling to have enough workers to keep the lights on. Don’t you know that the airlines are cancelling thousands of flights per day because they don’t have enough staff?
Arrive can is an issue as well, but the staffing shortages are a bigger factor.
I think the point is that while it may not be the main driver of the delays, it is certainly not helping.
Every extra checkpoint, scan, document verification, set of questions on a questionnaire, examination, validation, etc is an additional delay. It is passed the point of needing to start removing anything that is useless or extraneous from the system.
But, pride and spite mean refusing to let it go. They’ve even decided to start adding functionality to pretend it has some usefulness.
Umm, the lines ups and pileups are not only in areas under the control of airlines.
The staff shortage is probably one of the bigger reason. But, that too is Trudeau’s fault. He ignored science and imposed a vaccine mandate that did nothing to slow or stop the spread. It was useless, other than as a way to punish the unvaxed. The effect was huge numbers of staff, across areas, that were laid off or fired for not being vaxed.
Removing those mandates now means weeks or months before the staffing levels are corrected. It was a lack of common sense and planning on the part of the Trudeau government that caused this. The idiotic ArriveCAN app was just one more bad idea on top of every bad idea these dimwits have imposed on us.
ooooh, looks like we’re finally going to have a disagreement!
What science did he ignore if it was scientists the world over urging people to get vaccinated in order to reduce strain on hospital systems? Who are scientists in your mind? Are they folks who’ve spent decades researching this subject, or do you have your own definition for this word?
Also, how is HE specifically to blame if 95% of the countries imposed the same health policy restrictions based on guidance from leading local and international health bodies?
Staff shortages were a direct result of staff getting furloughed before vaccines were made available. There’s absolutely no evidence of shortages having any direct correlation with vaccines.
I acknowledge that it has overstayed its welcome now, but how was the ArriveCAN app a bad idea during the peak of the pandemic?
Are you an anti-vaxxer?
😉
I’m not at all an anti-vaxxer. Fully vaxed and boosted and I volunteered for 8 months at a vax clinic. But, I follow the data.
The data says vaccines don’t prevent or slow spread. Why should an unvaxed person not be able to work or travel? People were convinced it was because that made work and travel more safe and that was the reason we were given. Since it doesn’t prevent spread, that was a false and anti-science reason.
Staff shortage causes by the pandemic were greater. Massive and unavoidable. But, they’ve been rehiring for months and months. Not being able to rehire hundreds of unvaxed aggravates the shortage by ruling them out during the rehiring wave.
First of all, no one ever believed that any vaccine stops or slows the spread of the disease. Everyone who is pro-vaccine (and is of a sound mind) knows that it simply reduces the probability of an individual needing intensive care.
Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way let’s talk about public health policy: The federal mandate was to ensure our communist hospital system doesn’t get bogged down.
So based on what is bolded above, and everyone (vaxxed or unvaxxed) being equally exposed once the world opened up, which group of individuals are the greatest threat to our hospital system?
As for the staff shortages: recruitment for low-paying jobs has always been a slow game. Being a person that follows the data, you have yet to point us to the data that shows that the shortages are overwhelmingly the result of unvaxxed ex-workers not being allowed to come back to work.
I don’t think your first point is the norm. Vax mandates were pushed as the way to a “safe return” to work, play and travel. Last year I had many discussions here where people were desperately trying to convince me that the mandates were necessary so they wouldn’t have to worry about being in close quarters or in arenas or in restaurants with unvaxed people that would raise their risk. This is why people were so shocked at “break through infections” during Delta. They thought it was a neutralizing vax that prevents infection, like the polio vaccines. Dumb, yes, but it was the common sentiment because of the messaging from the government.
For ICU, while there’s definitely a case that vax reduces serious symptoms, it’s no longer clear cut. Since the winter, ICU numbers have been plummetting. In Ontario, covid ICU numbers are lower than they’ve been since 2020, all while restrictions were lifted.
But, I’ll concede, the pandemic itself and the collapse of the travel industry played a much larger role in reducing staff numbers. But, they’ve been hiring like mad since the last half of 2021and even more so during 2022. The inability to rehire the unvaxed until a couple weeks ago has not helped.
If the app is required for entry, what happened to the 0.3% that are not using it? They didn’t enter Canada?
Could be they are exempt from stupidity.
When the emergencies act was imposed, indigenous people, refugees and certain other groups were exempt from the suspension of charter rights. Could be something similar here.
At land border crossings, I think you’re able to provide a verbal declaration if you claim that your app doesn’t connect.
I have a US line so it just works every freaking time, but if I didn’t, I’d totally cite unaffordable Canadian cellular data to the tight-assred wrench at the border.
What happened to the paper version? Maybe let the travelers fill the version they are most confortable with and hire some students to do data entry for the summer.