The Northern Ontario Border Working Group says it supports ending the remaining border crossing requirements of random testing, vaccination of international tourists, and the use of ArriveCAN.
The release says remaining restrictions continue to prevent United States tourists from taking trips into Ontario, especially through land ports, as the number of trips has been approximately half of what they were during the summer of 2019. "Nature and Outdoor Tourism Ontario strongly supports the elimination of the pandemic border restrictions and requirements," states Executive Director Laure Marcil. "Vaccination requirements, ArriveCAN, and random testing have been the top three reasons for international tourists to choose vacation destinations other than returning to northern Ontario. This spring, these border requirements resulted in tourism businesses reporting over $100 million in cancellations.
Chris Bloore, president of the Tourism Industry Association of Ontario, maintains that, "For the tourism industry in Ontario to truly recover and to take its place as one of the leading economic drivers in our province, we need to remove the final obstacles to travel that are severely limiting the numbers of international travellers choosing to travel to Ontario.