Evidence of meeting #24 for International Trade in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was app.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Denis Vinette  Vice-President, Travellers Branch, Canada Border Services Agency
Marie-Hélène Lévesque  Director General, Centre for Compliance, Enforcement and Exemptions, Public Health Agency of Canada
Clerk of the Committee  Ms. Dancella Boyi
Mark Agnew  Senior Vice-President, Policy and Government Relations, Canadian Chamber of Commerce
Mark Weber  National President, Customs and Immigration Union
David MacLachlan  Executive Director, Destination Northern Ontario
Beth Potter  President and Chief Executive Officer, Tourism Industry Association of Canada
Lynnette Bain  Vice-President, Destination Development, Tourism Windsor Essex Pelee Island

6:30 p.m.

Senior Vice-President, Policy and Government Relations, Canadian Chamber of Commerce

6:30 p.m.

President and Chief Executive Officer, Tourism Industry Association of Canada

6:30 p.m.

Bloc

Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay Bloc Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC

What do those participating in the meeting by videoconference think?

6:30 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro

Would someone like to answer?

6:30 p.m.

Bloc

Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay Bloc Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC

My question is now for the witnesses participating in the meeting virtually.

6:30 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro

Mr. MacLachlan, do you want to go first?

6:30 p.m.

Executive Director, Destination Northern Ontario

David MacLachlan

I personally would be in favour. Yes.

6:30 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro

Mr. Weber...?

6:30 p.m.

National President, Customs and Immigration Union

Mark Weber

I'm not a public health expert.

6:30 p.m.

Vice-President, Destination Development, Tourism Windsor Essex Pelee Island

Lynnette Bain

I would choose the same response.

6:30 p.m.

Bloc

Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay Bloc Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC

That's great, thank you.

My next question is for the witnesses who said they are in favour of lifting the vaccine requirement.

Do you think the issue is the vaccine requirement or the ArriveCAN application?

6:30 p.m.

Senior Vice-President, Policy and Government Relations, Canadian Chamber of Commerce

Mark Agnew

I think that because the vaccine mandate only applies to outbound travel and you're not using ArriveCAN for outbound travel, in that sense it's been slightly decoupled, based on the announcement that was made this week. The caveat I would give, though, is that because unvaccinated individuals are now going to be able to travel, they have to come back into Canada. I think that's where you're going to see additional bottlenecks created. They have to go through the ArriveCAN verification.

6:30 p.m.

President and Chief Executive Officer, Tourism Industry Association of Canada

Beth Potter

The fact that you have both—the ArriveCAN app and the change in the vaccine mandate that was announced this week—has just made it much more confusing for Canadian travellers and for international travellers who are considering Canada as a destination.

6:30 p.m.

Bloc

Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay Bloc Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC

The ArriveCAN application requires proof of vaccination. That information has to be entered at some point. I know this because I did it a few weeks ago.

My next question is for the Customs and Immigration Union representative and the Tourism Windsor Essex Pelee Island representative. They did not comment because they are not experts in public health.

If the health measures were maintained, how would they be maintained without enforcement?

6:30 p.m.

Vice-President, Destination Development, Tourism Windsor Essex Pelee Island

Lynnette Bain

I think what the industry needs to hear is what the benchmarks are that need to be achieved before these types of restrictions can be removed. I think having that information, and having that communicated and shared, would help the industry know how to plan and know what to expect.

I think confusion right now is the biggest issue. As I said, not being a public health expert, I'm not able to say whether I want to let unvaccinated travellers in. I mean, it's hindering our ability to attract the number of visitors who were previously coming to our destination.

6:35 p.m.

Bloc

Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay Bloc Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC

Mr. Weber, do you want to add anything?

6:35 p.m.

National President, Customs and Immigration Union

Mark Weber

Yes. Thank you.

If the only requirement is to show proof of vaccination, you simply put the officers back on the front line and get them to ask people to show proof of vaccination. You don't need the application to do that.

Again, on the idea that this app is easy to complete, I can tell you, and you can ask anyone working on the front line, that it is working all day helping people complete that app. It is not to say that it is a free app to use when you know what roaming fees are in a foreign country, not to mention that at many of our ports of entry we don't have Wi-Fi for them to complete it.

The app is a big problem.

6:35 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro

You have 40 seconds remaining, Monsieur Savard-Tremblay.

6:35 p.m.

Bloc

Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay Bloc Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC

Mr. Weber, why would it be faster to use your own application and have an agent scan these codes?

How is that faster than filling out ArriveCAN in advance?

6:35 p.m.

National President, Customs and Immigration Union

Mark Weber

The issue is that it's quite often not filled out in advance, which means cars parked, people at the airport lined up filling out the app, and us, rather than processing travellers, taking the time to help people fill out the app.

You can show me your proof of vaccination on a phone. You can simply show it. If that's the only requirement, that's really all you need. That would take a second with an officer.

6:35 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro

Thank you very much.

6:35 p.m.

Bloc

Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay Bloc Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC

Thank you.

6:35 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro

We'll go on to Mr. Masse for five minutes.

6:35 p.m.

NDP

Brian Masse NDP Windsor West, ON

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I can assure you that if parliamentarians had to use ArriveCAN every time they had to return to the precinct, they we wouldn't have this app. It would be dropped quicker than anything else.

I think Mr. Weber hit on it, and I'd like to go with him first. It's particularly frustrating that this is really just a resource issue. We're forcing some type of a technology here that's temporary, versus if you actually have a process—and you just gave a good example—where you could use your phone or give a print-off quickly to the officer. They're capable of doing that, are they not?

6:35 p.m.

National President, Customs and Immigration Union

Mark Weber

Absolutely. Now, because a lot of these technologies that have been put in, the few officers we have left on the front line are taking all their time helping people fill out an app.