BUFFALO (WBEN) - Last week, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau discussed the border, saying unvaccinated people will have to wait "quite a while" to cross the border.
[shortcode-inline-related expand="1" link="/wben/news/local/trudeau-will-not-allow-unvaccinated-people-into-canada" headline="Trudeau: Unvaccinated people traveling to Canada is "not going to happen for quite a while"" image="/media-library/image.jpg?id=63620949"]Tiffany Hendsbee is a writer and radio news anchor at CTV News Toronto, and she wanted to clarify exactly what Trudeau said so people aren't confused or misconstruing his words.
"At least one article that I raid kind of suggested that the Prime Minister has said it's going to be a while before the border opens, and that's really taken out of context," said Hendsbee.
"What Prime Minister Trudeau tried to get across this week is that he's working on a plan to at first allow vaccinated travelers to come and visit Canada - that's kind of where they want to start. Now, when he said it's going to be a while, what he was referring to was travelers who are unvaccinated."
Trudeau did not offer a specific timeline of this phased reopening, something local politicians, especially Congressman Brian Higgins, have been calling on for months.
Along with politicians, the tourism industries on both the American and Canadian side have been calling for movement at the border, as those tourism dollars represent a major component of the local economy.
"The tourism industry has been practically screaming for months now for a plan to reopen the border," Hendsbee continued. "Canada has essentially been closed to foreign nationals for a year-and-a-half now, other than essential trips."
However, there is some good news in terms of getting the border opened at least in some capacity.
Of course, Canada really struggled out of the gate in terms of vaccination rates due to supply issues, but Hendsbee said recent weeks have shown a major improvement in that regard and that there's a significant appetite for Canadians to get vaccinated.
"Vaccination rates here in Canada have, quite frankly, skyrocketed," said Hendsbee. "We had a slow start, but now we're up to 80% of those 12 and older having a first dose (as of Saturday), and 45% or so are fully vaccinated."
And that, according to Hendsbee, will be the key to reopening the border and for those who want to check on property, see family, or simply travel sooner rather than later.
"If you're someone who's been itching to cross the border into Canada, get vaccinated if you haven't already because those are going to be the first people that are going to be allowed into this country, and we haven't been given any information on quarantine yet, but certainly, if you want to travel, you have to get vaccinated or you're going to be waiting a while."
