BUFFALO, N.Y. — Over the weekend, the Canadian minister of public safety said the country is aiming to have 75% of its citizens fully vaccinated in order to reopen the border to non-essential travel.

What You Need To Know

  • Canada just announced some details on the phased-in loosening of border travel restrictions
  • This is all coming some 16 months into the closure
  • There have been growing calls on both the local and federal level to reopen the border
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U.S. Rep. Brian Higgins said the Canadian government is changing its stance after the prime minister previously indicated the benchmark would be 20% fully vaccinated and 75% with at least one shot.

"They met that threshold last weekend, so you can't keep moving the goal post," Higgins said.

The government did, as expected Monday, lay out the first phase of easing restrictions. Starting July 5, Canadian citizens and permanent residents who are fully vaccinated will no longer have to complete a mandatory quarantine and hotel stay when they return from the United States.

"This is no news, to be truthful, and when you establish metrics and you don't adhere to them, what's going on here?" Higgins questioned.

He is among a handful of federal lawmakers growing increasingly frustrated with the Canadian government. Restrictions which would have sunset Monday have been extended another month to July 21.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he called the Canadian ambassador Friday to urge the adoption of an expanded definition of essential traveler.

"People are really disappointed and angry and upset," immigration attorney Rosanna Berardi said. "Even our local politicians are very, very angry. It's very unusual for this relationship that's been so harmonious for decades has now become very splintered."

Berardi said while the Canadian government is pointing to the COVID-19 delta variant as a reason for concern, she believes the September federal election in Canada has a lot to do with the government's slow pace.

"I think a lot of this is politically driven as well as they're relying on this big surge of vaccinations coming in and now they're saying, well, based on what we're getting this should be done by August but you know we've heard this time and time again," she said.

Last week, Higgins officially asked the president to move forward with a unilateral reopening of the American side of the border, but Berardi said most of the pressure is coming only from politicians in Buffalo and other border cities.

"We don't see the Biden administration indicating in any way that they're interested in unilaterally reopening the border,” she said. “If you think about it politically and for our relationship with Canada, it would be a pretty gutsy move.”

Higgins admitted Monday that border travel is a more important issue to people in Buffalo, where the Peace Bridge is the busiest of 120 land ports of entry across the country.