Whether you’ve toured the globe or stopped in the United States to fill up the gas tank, when you return to Canada, you must wear a face mask in public for 14 days.
The federal border requirement, however, is now out of step with the rules in B.C. and almost every other province, where masking is no longer legally required in public indoor spaces.
Anyone entering Canada must also keep track of all close contacts for two weeks and closely self-monitor for COVID-19 symptoms, according to Ottawa’s rules. Read more: Canada’s top doctors still recommend wearing a mask — even as provinces ditch mandates Dr.
Birinder Narang, a family physician in B.C., said it’s important to monitor for symptoms of the virus. Tracking one’s close contacts for two weeks, however, covers an incubation period that is “much longer” than any variant has been in recent months, he explained. “I think the onus right now is on the federal government, if they say, ‘Hey, we need to have these restrictions,’ there needs to be some transparency around, ‘Here’s the evidence why this continues to work,'” Narang said in an interview. “I don’t think that evidence exists, in which case it should be a recommendation.” The information travellers must follow is on the federal government website but is not part of the email all travellers receive a few days after arriving in Canada.