MP Report – Mandates, Passports and Airports

We have heard all the horror stories at Service Canada offices and airports. People camping out in front of passport offices for days or paying someone to do it on their behalf so they can submit their passport applications.  Trips of a lifetime cancelled.  Missed flight connections, weddings, graduations, funerals.  Once again, basic services denied Canadians because of outdated covid 19 protocols and Liberal incompetence.

Hit first and hit hard, the Canadian tourism sector was devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic.  The industry was finally hoping to see a recovery during this summer’s travel season, but the federal government is standing in its way.  CBSA screening that used to take 30 seconds per passenger is now taking 2 minutes and airports directly cite government policies as the reason for these delays.

The Liberal government’s outdated COVID-19 protocols are causing extreme delays, chaos and unending line-ups.  Passport applications are taking months to process and to reduce airport congestion, airlines have now had to cancel many flights for July and August, during peak tourism season.

Industry experts from a wide range of disciplines are calling on the government to drop travel restrictions. These restrictions have many impacts on Canadian travel times, our economy, and the country’s international reputation.

As allies across the world, like the European Union and the United States have loosened rules for passengers on flights and in airports, Canadian travelers are still subjected to unnecessary protocols that are having devastating consequences.

Action should have been taken months ago.  Clearly, basic government services haven’t been a ‘top priority’. The Trudeau government stuck rigidly to federal mandates and diminished Service Canada’s ability to provide adequate service to Canadians.

Conservatives stand with Canadians getting back to normal life and have been calling for a plan from the federal government to get Canada out of this pandemic and on to the road of recovery, we have called for the removal of the remaining federal COVID-19 restrictions which stifle the recovery, the return in person of government employees at Service Canada offices, and for an end to the mandatory use of the ArriveCAN application.