Travellers on board with vaccine mandate

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This article was published 05/10/2021 (1080 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Travellers who arrived in Winnipeg Wednesday welcomed news of the national vaccine mandate that will mean everyone who boards a plane or train must be fully vaccinated by the end of this month.

“(It’s a) huge sigh of relief!” said Sheila Smyth after she and her husband landed in Winnipeg to visit their daughter, whom they haven’t seen since before the pandemic.

“I am totally in favour of all the rules coming in, (including) for the federal workers, the provincial workers. If you’re not vaccinated, then you do not deserve to be in your position endangering other people.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Wednesday that as of the end of October, everyone over the age of 12 who travels by air or rail must be fully vaccinated at least two weeks before they depart. As of the end of November, negative COVID-19 test results won’t be accepted in place of proof of vaccination. The federal government hinted at the impending rules for travellers earlier this summer, so they came as no surprise to many.

Several people who spoke to the Free Press at Winnipeg’s airport had their proof of vaccination at the ready and expected to be asked to show it.

Along with the vaccine mandate for travellers, Trudeau announced all federal workers, including public servants, must be fully vaccinated by Oct. 29 or be put on unpaid leave from their jobs. The vaccine mandate also applies to airline and rail employees.

The Winnipeg Airports Authority, which requires its employees to be fully vaccinated, said about 94 per cent of them have received their shots. Most of the remaining employees are in the process of getting vaccinated, said spokesman Tyler MacAfee. He said airlines, not the airport itself, will be responsible for verifying travellers’ proof of vaccination.

“People understand now that showing that proof of vaccination is required to go to a movie or a restaurant, so it’s not a big stretch to also require that for people to travel.”

International passengers who arrive in Winnipeg from outside the country can get tested for COVID-19 at the airport through a federal testing program. Unvaccinated international travellers are subject to quarantine requirements. A short-lived provincial pilot project that offered domestic travellers COVID-19 testing at the airport wrapped up in the summer.

Arriving on a flight from Edmonton, Eileen Asselstine said she was pleased with the politeness of other passengers and their adherence to masking, distancing and hand sanitizing, but she would have felt more comfortable flying if she could be certain everyone was fully vaccinated.

“They’ve got to do something to make people get vaccinated; get a little tougher. We should have done a lot of this a long time ago,” she said, speaking in favour of the new rules.

As a senior who’s been involved with the local business community, Winnipegger Wayne Kolisnyk said he thinks politicians of all stripes have delivered muddled messages that catered to vaccine “naysayers.” The new rules are smart, he said, but he fears they won’t go far enough.

“I think it’s smart, because these people (who are unvaccinated) are trying to suggest that it’s about their freedoms. A virus doesn’t know freedoms, and it’s got nothing to do with freedoms. It’s got everything to do with them being responsible for others, which they seem to care very little for. So I’m tired of it, quite frankly, and I think it’s about time somebody got the guts to deal with this properly,” Kolisnyk said.

— with files from The Canadian Press

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @thatkatiemay