Canada-U.S. border rules: Unvaccinated visitors won't be coming to Canada for 'quite a while,' Trudeau says

Unvaccinated travellers shouldn't expect to come to Canada anytime soon, according to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

"That’s not going to happen for quite a while," Trudeau said at a press conference on Thursday.

For anyone who is vaccinated and hoping to travel from Canada to the U.S., or vice versa, the prime minister still wasn't able to provide any concrete details on when the existing border restrictions on leisure could be loosened.

"We are very eager to move forward on next steps," he said. "We have to make sure, however, every step of the way, that we are not sliding back, not having to re-close, not having to go yo-yo-ing again in our openings and closings."

"I can understand entirely why people are so eager to see the end of this pandemic and move forward but we are not there yet."

International travel rules will continue to be loosened

The prime minister did indicate that the next step for the federal government is to look at possible loosening of measures for international travellers who are fully vaccinated.

As of Monday, fully vaccinated Canadians and permanent residents no longer have to quarantine when they return to Canada, but are still required to take pre-departure and arrival COVID-19 tests.

Earlier on Thursday Ontario's Solicitor General, Sylvia Jones, stated that the provincial government has continued to communicate with the federal government that COVID-19 variants are coming into Ontario through the borders.

"There is responsibility at the federal level to make sure that as that movement occurs there is the protection in place to ensure that the individuals who are moving back and forth are properly quarantining, properly being monitored by the federal government, because we don’t want to see additional variants coming into Ontario," she said.

This comes after Niagara's top public health officials indicated it is a risk to open the Canada-U.S. border due to Delta variant spread, recommending that the situation be reassessed in the fall.