The cost to Canadian taxpayers of mandatory quarantine hotels used during the COVID-19 pandemic has already hit nearly $339 million and accounting isn’t finished, according to figures disclosed to date by the federal government.
A Health Canada briefing note, disclosed by Blacklock’s Reporter on July 25, indicates that expenses for each traveller housed in a hotel for 72 hours were at a cost of more than $17,000.
The costs associated with the government’s mandatory quarantine rule included lodging, meals, security, traveller support, and transportation,” said the document, “Designated Quarantine Facilities,” and the total cost came to hundreds of millions, according to the document. It says the final cost is still unknown as “accounting continues given the program was recently cancelled.”
The briefing note said that “$338.7 million was expended on designated quarantine facilities,” which works out to the equivalent of $17,500 per traveler. The data was “not previously published only as accounting continues given the program was recently cancelled,” it said.
From March 2020 to September 2022, travellers who arrived in Canada who did not have a COVID test of a particular type prescribed by the federal government, or that could not prove they were COVID-free, were required to stay in a designated “quarantine” hotel for at least three days. Those travellers who refused to submit to COVID tests reported they were not allowed to leave the hotel for days or were issued hefty fines.
The government designated a total of 38 hotels contracted for quarantined travellers between March 2020 and September 2022, the note said. “A total of 22,188 travelers were quarantined or isolated at designated quarantine facilities between March 22, 2020 and September 30, 2022.”
“Maintaining these facilities as a contingency was an important part of protecting Canadians,” said the Health Canada document.
