Alberta Premier Calls on Trudeau Government to End ‘Pointless’ COVID-19 Travel Restrictions

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney speaks at a press conference in Calgary, Alberta, on March 25, 2022. Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said he has called on the federal government to end its “pointless” COVID-19 travel restrictions that no other major country in the world has.

“Alberta’s conservative MLAs have called on Trudeau to scrap pointless travel restrictions, including the vaccine passport,” Kenney said in a Twitter post made on April 28.

“I don’t know any other major country in the world that has a similar policy,” he added.

He also shared a video of his Live: Question and Answer program on YouTube from April 20, in which he was asked if he can help bring an end to the vaccine passport mandate imposed on air travellers.

“Yeah, we have pushed for that,” Kenney said in response. “We did bring in a motion in Alberta’s legislature that the government voted for, the government MLAs, calling on the Trudeau federal Liberal government to drop the remaining travel restrictions, and particularly the vaccine passport.”

Kenney continued to say that the proof of vaccination policy is pointless, and an alternative should have been set up.

“We think it serves no useful public health purpose. They don’t have an alternative, which is a negative test, which might be a reasonable accommodation, but in any event, I think it’s a pointless policy,” he said.

On March 16, the Alberta legislative assembly voted in favour of the motion to call on the federal government to end travel restrictions. While the conservatives voted in favour, Kenney said in a Twitter post that the NDP members of the legislature had “sided with their ally Justin Trudeau” by voting against the motion.

The motion called on the province’s legislative assembly to recognize that the current air travel restrictions imposed by the federal government have “no measurable public health benefit,” and to call on the government to revoke its proof of vaccination requirement for airline passengers and its pre-departure COVID-19 testing requirement for international airline passengers entering Canada.

On March 18, the government cancelled the pre-entry COVID-19 tests for fully vaccinated Canadian citizens or foreign travellers coming into the country by land, water, and air, beginning April 1. Fully vaccinated travellers are still required to use the ArriveCan app to monitor their health conditions within 72 before their arrival in Canada, while people who don’t qualify as fully vaccinated can only enter the country under limited circumstances.