International Trade Committee on Oct. 4th, 2022

[Beth Potter]

For businesses in border towns, what they will remember—and what they are still stinging from—is the impact of the passport requirement post-9/11. Canadians are much more adaptable to new technologies and new requirements than Americans are, and I say that with a large American family of my own. The fact of the matter is that needing a passport to go back into the United States prevented many Americans from travelling for 10 years.

It took us 10 years to see the usual number of Americans coming across the border to go into our border towns to enjoy our retailers and our tourism businesses. It was 10 years, and this is what businesses are afraid of. They are afraid that they are going to see another 10-year lag and they just can't afford that.

When you add that on top of the additional debt burden they've taken on because of trying to stay alive during the pandemic years and trying to keep their businesses afloat, we're just adding an increased burden on these businesses. A lot of them are looking at this and saying, “This is my future and my retirement. Am I going to be able to continue to support my family?” They're making the decision to close and do something else instead.

[Lianne Rood, Conservative, Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON]

It's very troubling to hear that. I've seen businesses in many of my communities shut their doors because of that.

Mr. Mayor, maybe you can help with this, considering that yours is a border town. What would you like to see the federal government do to help bring back tourists, especially from the United States? There is still a hesitancy from a lot of U.S. residents to come over to Canada. We've seen the morale drop. People don't want to come to Canada. What would you suggest? We only have about 30 seconds.

[Jim Diodati]

I think we need a major advertising campaign in the U.S. If our removing of restrictions is the best kept secret, it's not going to help us and it's going to delay the recovery. We need a major advertising campaign targeting the U.S. market and the international market, letting them know that, once again, we're open for business.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Miao, you have five minutes, please.

[Wilson Miao, Liberal, Richmond Centre, BC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you to all the witnesses attending today's important study on this impact of ArriveCAN.

First, I would like to acknowledge Mr. Boudreau, who has done a great job with YVR. I do travel often between YVR and Ottawa nowadays.

I want to direct the following question to you.

As you know, many businesses, globally and locally, are facing tremendous challenges during the global pandemic, ranging from interrupted production, supply chain destruction, rapid shifts in demand, staff shortages and elevated commodity prices. Despite the significant challenges, Canada's two-way trade in goods and services rose by 14.1% in 2021 and reached a new record high of $1.5 trillion. This is a testament to the adaptability and resilience of Canadian businesses, workers and entrepreneurs.

Given that other Canadian sectors and overall Canadian trade are improving, have you experienced an increase in flights related to trade at the Vancouver airport? How has that been affected by the impacts of the ArriveCAN application?

[Trevor Boudreau]

I appreciate the compliments, but I'm an avatar for the more than 24,000 people who work at YVR every day and directly contribute to a positive experience for our travellers. Thank you for that on behalf of everybody.

In terms of trade, historically for the airport, cargo generally does come in the belly of passenger aircraft. Before the pandemic, about 70% of cargo in trade was enabled through “belly cargo”, which is what we call it here. That's changing, and that's changing quite fundamentally.

Because of the impacts of the pandemic, of course, there weren't as many passengers, so those planes were coming in full of boxes and goods. I'm sure folks have seen lots of pictures. Of course, here on the west coast, we experienced a tremendous climate-fuelled weather disaster that wreaked havoc on our roads and rail, so the air mode was able to pick up a bit of the slack. We actually see a tremendous opportunity and, as such, are investing a significant amount of money to expand our cargo operations here at the airport in support of Canada's economy and in support of Canadian cargo operators, and that's important.

On the challenge with the vaccination and health information mandate that had to be submitted through ArriveCAN, any delay that would have impacted a connection at any point in an aircraft's journey—and that may not have been at YVR; it could have been at another airport, like an international airport—also impacted the ability of goods to arrive on time. It exacerbated some of the challenges you mentioned in your opening remarks about supply chains.

The faster our sector can get back to what we once were, which was essentially operating like a Swiss watch—where we were moving just-in-time supply chains expertly, with passengers' bags and packages—the better things will be for everybody.

[Wilson Miao, Liberal, Richmond Centre, BC]

You mentioned that the application is an important part of modernizing the future of travelling. Do you have any suggestion for how we can better improve this application to make it more convenient for international travellers, or even local travellers, and not just in their experience through YVR airport but at any international airport across Canada?

[Trevor Boudreau]

I think there will be a lot of lessons learned about how the application was rolled out. It was rolled out rather quickly through a pandemic, so maybe some of the testing that would normally have been done didn't happen. Certainly there's a great discussion to be had about how we can ensure, whenever we're launching new technology here in Canada, that accessibility is front and centre.

Here at YVR, when we're developing technology, we develop it with security and privacy by design. I have no doubt that the CBSA did not do the same with ArriveCAN, but that's important too.

Fundamentally, what this comes down to is that everyone has to row the boat together and help folks understand. Let's build literacy about how to use these applications. I use the example of a multi-generational family arriving at YVR. Folks who are a little more tech savvy can use ArriveCAN in advance, and then they can help their family members who aren't as tech savvy.

Like Mr. Bachrach and Mayor Diodati, I have parents in their seventies with questionable tech skills, so I often operate as a tech help desk. That's really important for folks.

When they come in through the air mode, the utilization of ultra-efficient technology, with the ability for border guards to see non-trusted and potentially riskier travellers so they can do the job they need to do to protect our borders, is going to be critical in the system.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much.

We'll move on to Ms. Gladu for five minutes.

[Marilyn Gladu, Conservative, Sarnia—Lambton, ON]

Thank you, Chair, and thank you to the witnesses for being here today.

I'm going to start off with a question for the mayor.

The Blue Water Bridge in my riding saw many of the same issues that you've detailed. We saw delays four times as great or more, with many individuals who were fined and quarantined even though they were fully vaccinated and asymptomatic, seniors calling my office crying and many people feeling quite abused.

At the end of the day, it seems to me that the mandatory use of ArriveCAN was discriminatory to seniors who weren't tech savvy and people who didn't have a smart phone. Would you agree with that?

[Jim Diodati]

Yes, 100%. I was inundated with calls from seniors all over the region, and in different ridings and municipalities as well, because I was a voice defending their concerns. There was no question at all that they definitely felt targeted throughout this. They felt helpless. One gentleman said, “I feel stranded. I haven't been able to visit my family.” He was very frustrated and hurt.

[Marilyn Gladu, Conservative, Sarnia—Lambton, ON]

We had the same thing. Of course, in a border town many people are used to going across the border every day for shopping and visiting family. Many people have partners, and their relationships were damaged by this long border barrier.

One thing we saw as well was that many people who crossed the border and filled out their ArriveCAN would get emails two or three days afterwards. Nobody would say anything to them at the border, but two or three days later they would get emails saying that they had missed their first test and that they should be quarantining. Meanwhile, they'd been three days wandering around the community because nobody had told them anything about it. Then they were threatened with fines.

Did you have anything like that happening in your riding?

[Jim Diodati]

Yes, daily, and that's why people were so concerned and worried. They weren't little fines. My brother was visiting his son, who was going to school in the U.S., and when he and my sister-in-law came across the border, for some reason the results, after they paid for their PCR tests, didn't come through. They were threatened with $5,000 fines—one each for him and my sister-in-law.

A lot of people, and we can imagine a lot of seniors, get very worried, so what do they do? They avoid it. It's like their freedom was taken away from them for a few years. I feel bad for those people, but I would hear those kinds of horror stories on a regular basis from tourists and locals alike. I was inundated and they kept asking, “Is anybody listening? Why aren't they reacting?”

[Marilyn Gladu, Conservative, Sarnia—Lambton, ON]

Thank you for that.

I have some questions for Ms. Potter.

I have a lot of relatives in the U.S., and I agree with your statement that many Americans were totally unaware of the requirement for ArriveCAN. What should we have done or could we do to make international travellers—especially those from the U.S., which is such an important partner for us—aware of the requirement?

[Beth Potter]

I agree with Mayor Diodati's recommendation. We need to get the word out. I'm looking at organizations like Destination Canada, the provincial and territorial tourism marketing agencies. They will need to incorporate this kind of information in their campaigns to the U.S. for us to try to overcome what has been a barrier to Americans coming into Canada.

[Marilyn Gladu, Conservative, Sarnia—Lambton, ON]

I have a question for Ms. Pasher about international travellers coming in and the impact of the ArriveCAN app. Can you talk a bit more about that? You had some information there about the drop-off in international folks due to ArriveCAN. I would like to hear more about that.

[Monette Pasher]

I think the vaccine requirement and the pandemic measures, which were facilitated through the ArriveCAN app, were a barrier to travel. We have heard numerous examples of it here today. There were also places like Whistler, for skiing. We heard it was mainly U.S. travellers, and they certainly saw the impact of that. Having these pandemic measures in place had an impact on our tourism industry, our airports and our airline partners.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

You have 20 seconds left.

[Marilyn Gladu, Conservative, Sarnia—Lambton, ON]

Thank you to the witnesses.

I'm glad to see that ArriveCAN is gone, and I hope it doesn't come back.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much. The point is noted.

Mr. Arya, go ahead for five minutes, please.

[Chandra Arya, Liberal, Nepean, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

The pandemic has been quite frustrating to all, especially businesses. The pandemic issues now may be due to the pandemic supply chain problems and the related labour shortages. All of these have contributed to a lot of problems, especially for the tourism industry.

I have travelled within Canada, and probably more now than in the last three or four years. I have stayed in Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver and other places. Getting a hotel room is quite difficult, and rooms are really expensive.

Ms. Potter, it's nice seeing you again. It's twice in 24 hours. You mentioned there was a drop of 15% or 50% in the number of people crossing the border by car. How much was it ?

[Beth Potter]

It's 50%.

[Chandra Arya, Liberal, Nepean, ON]

You also mentioned in your opening statement that international travellers tend to stay longer and spend more than domestic travellers. Which category do you think spends more? Is it the people crossing at land borders or the international air travellers from Europe, Asia and other places?

[Beth Potter]

We certainly know that the farther somebody travels to Canada, the longer they stay and the more they spend.