Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Local officials gathered on Monday at Frank Lloyd Wright's Martin House in Buffalo to talk more about the re-opening of the border between Canada and the United States.
The border opening now allows for fully vaccinated travelers to travel back-and-forth between the U.S. and Canada.
While Monday's discussions mainly centered around the potential economic impact of Canadian travelers returning to the Western New York region, COVID-19 testing for travelers heading to or returning to Canada was also brought up for discussion.
Despite anyone being fully vaccinated and traveling to Canada, they are still required to provide a negative PCR COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours of crossing the border. This requirement is something that New York congressman Brian Higgins continues to push the Canadian government to end as soon as possible.
"It's costly, it's inconvenient, and it's unpleasant and it's unnecessary,," Higgins said. "The inflection point and this whole pandemic has been the availability of testing both for safety and efficacy of vaccines. These vaccines are 85%, 90%, 95% [effective], and they significantly reduce the severity and the spread of COVID. That is the test.
"The truth is that all of us were told for the past 20 months to follow the signs, to follow the facts, to follow the data. It points to one thing: if you're fully vaccinated, you significantly reduce the spread and the severity of COVID."
While Higgins understands there is no way to eradicate COVID-19, it is about managing it in a safe and successful way.
"The best tool to do that is [for people to be] fully vaccinated," Higgins said. "Vaccines are available, there's no cost associated with them, and it's not as bad an experience as the testing requirement. ... If you are fully vaccinated, you should be able to move between the borders. People are looking for some liberation. People are looking to celebrate the great biomedical achievement with these vaccines, and it's about time that we get the border open without constraints.
"The President of the United States has said this is a pandemic today of the unvaccinated. Those that have done the right thing on behalf of themselves, on behalf of their families, on behalf of their neighbors immediate and by national, should be able to move freely between the United States and Canada without having to go through this redundant, unnecessary testing."
Until the Canadian government relaxes or eliminates its COVID-19 testing requirements for travelers heading into Canada, other local officials are doing their part to try and make people's travels a more enjoyable experience.
"What we need to do is just let our Canadian friends know they can call us," said Erie County Executive, Mark Poloncarz on Monday. "The county will test anyone. We just have to have proof of identification of who they are. We will test anyone and we don't charge anything for the testing. However, they have to schedule it before. It's not walk up testing. So if somebody knows they're coming into town for, let's say, four days, three days, they can schedule it with us - (716)-858-2929 - so if they get tested on the final day, we can have a test done and they can get the results that day."
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President and CEO of Visit Buffalo Niagara, Patrick Kaler is also among those hopeful that the testing requirements by the Canadian government will be lessened or eliminated down the road.
"We understand and appreciate the testing challenges that the Canadian government will impose to residents returning from the United States, but know this is going to be an initial impact on the return of Canadians coming to Erie County," Kaler said.
In the meantime, Kaler says that Visit Buffalo Niagara is looking into the possibilities of offering free COVID-19 testing sites, similar to what HoliMont Ski Resort will be offering to their Canadian visitors this season.
"We are actually looking into that, because we have seen that as what's taking place in some other destinations as well," Kaler said. "It's still all very preliminary, at this point. I think we want to see what's going to happen with people coming across. Of course, we know that it is going to be slow, but we want to make sure that the overall experience of Canadians coming back-and-forth as easy and economical, at the same time, because we want them to leave their dollars behind when they come to shop and spend the night."
Listen to Monday's entire press conference below:
