COVID-19 tests to enter Canada 'costly, inconvenient and unpleasant': N.Y. congressman

Story Transcript

U.S. Congressman Brian Higgins says he's thrilled to see the land border reopened between the U.S. and Canada, but worries Canada's COVID-19 testing requirements will discourage cross-border traffic. 

As of midnight on Monday, the U.S. officially re-opened its land border to vaccinated Canadian travellers following a 19-month shutdown.

Canadian travel rules still require anyone entering the country to show proof of a negative PCR or other molecular COVID-19 test, taken within 72 hours of their departing flight or planned arrival. Those tests can cost up to $300 Cdn. per person, and can take up to 24 hours to show results. 

Several mayors and other politicians representing U.S.-Canada border cities have called on Canada to scrap the testing requirement. Some doctors have suggested instead requiring antigen tests, which are faster and cheaper than molecular tests, but less accurate. 

Chief Public Health Officer Theresa Tam said Friday the testing policy was being "actively looked at."

Higgins is a Democratic congressman who represents parts of New York state that border Canada. Here is part of his conversation with As It Happens host Carol Off. 

What was it like for you today to see travellers from Canada finally crossing that border again?

We still have some issues remaining. That said, it's a celebration of the reunification of people who have been separated for 19 months [and] people who just want to visit the United States coming in from Canada.

Travellers returning to Canada have to show a negative PCR test. This is like the gold standard of [COVID-19] testing. And you have an issue with that. Can you tell us why you think that we should not do that?

Because vaccines reduce the spread and severity of COVID. Vaccines are widely available and free. And I think that the testing requirement for Canadians when they re-enter Canada is a major obstacle to realizing the full potential of a border opening.

We are working with our Canadian counterparts, members of Parliament [and] talking with the Canadian ambassador to the United States to get the federal government in Canada to lift the testing requirement. I think it's unnecessary. I think it's costly, inconvenient and unpleasant.

Don't you see that given the fact that there is still a pandemic, that this is a reliable thing to have?

It's reliable, but it's unnecessary. If you are fully vaccinated, you have very powerful protection against giving and getting COVID. It certainly is not 100 per cent, but the U.S. president, Joe Biden, has made very clear that today this is a pandemic of the unvaccinated.

And keep in mind, the United States is opening the border to our Canadian neighbours who are fully vaccinated, and we do not require from our Canadian neighbours a test. So I think there's a recognition from our Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that just being smart about this, being fully vaccinated [and] wearing a mask when necessary obviates the need to have a testing requirement.

This very day, there are people over in Canada who were probably contemplating a trip across the border to Buffalo and Western New York, and aren't doing it because of this additional requirement.

This test has to be done within 72 hours for this admissibility. Many people, I would imagine, cross into Buffalo and come back on the same day. So how would that work?

You would have to have a test either in Canada or in the United States, but it would have to be within that 72-hour period. And we know that when people are coming from Canada, some are day trips, some are the weekends, some are a little bit longer. 

It's a physical and psychological additional barrier that ... I think is unnecessary. And a lot of the mayors in those border towns over in Ontario and mayors in places like Niagara Falls, New York, members of Parliament, travel organizations [and] tourist organizations are joining in this effort to ask the federal government in Canada to drop the testing requirement for those who are fully vaccinated.

There's this antigen test, which is less reliable. It's about 80 per cent as reliable as this PCR test is. The antigen test is much, much cheaper.... Would you accept that, or do you think that the whole testing thing should just be scrubbed?

It's not my call. I'm just suggesting and arguing that when you follow the science, when you follow the data, when you follow the facts, that if you're fully vaccinated, again, you have powerful immunity against getting or giving COVID. And it's serving as an obstacle, again, to realizing the full potential of the border reopening.

[Some] doctors are arguing that that rapid test might even be better than the PCR test because you do it right away at the border, you know the results, and it's not 72 hours before, where someone could actually have become infected during that period, and many people come and go in 72 hours from the United States. So do you see any logic at all in having an antigen test?

Regardless of what the test is, there's still a cost associated with it. There is still an inconvenience issue. There are still issues of intrusiveness. It's not a pleasant experience.

And if it's not essential as it relates to the guidance that we're receiving from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, why are we making people endure that?

We're seeing line-ups of people wanting to get into the U.S. today across the border. So are you actually seeing an effect? Do you think there are people who aren't crossing because of this test requirement? 

It's early yet, and I do believe that that is an additional obstacle, a requirement that will deter people from crossing the border.

The bottom line is there's a human nature aspect to this. You know, we're all economic actors. When we're confident, we move. When we're not, we don't. And when there are additional obstacles in the way that will serve to discourage people from making their cross-border trip … [if] you remove that, you're going to have more cross-border movement.

Are you getting any response from the Canadian government to your request that they drop this testing?

We haven't had anything decisive now, but another decision will be forthcoming as this process evolves.

Written by Sheena Goodyear with files from CBC News. Interview produced by Chris Harbord. Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.