OTTAWA—Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino says he’s instructed border officials to allow travellers to give their travel information at the border if they’ve forgotten or haven’t been able to use the governments ArriveCan app.
Until now, anyone coming in to Canada had to enter their travel details in the app or else be denied boarding or subject to a two-week quarantine on arrival.
The app collects information about where the traveller has been, the purpose of their trip, their contact information, vaccination information, pre-travel COVID-19 test results, and their quarantine plan once they are in Canada.
Conservative public safety critic Raquel Dancho says MPs have received hundreds of complaints about the policy, including that the app is inaccessible and unreliable.
Mendicino says the government will never hesitate to put measures in place to protect Canadians at the border, particularly in light of the emergence of the new Omicron variant.
He says has instructed the Canadian Border Services Agency to give travellers the opportunity to give their information in person instead.
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