Slow down trucker vaccine rule, business groups say as PM, Tories trade barbs

OTTAWA - Enterprise leaders are urging Ottawa to ease vaccine mandates for cross-border truckers to alleviate the congested provide chain with america, whereas Liberals and Conservatives sparred over the extent of the issue and learn how to resolve it.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau defended the mandate Monday as a mandatory step to maintain provide chains open, arguing that COVID-19 itself is the most important danger to Canada’s economic system.

The mandate, which got here into impact after an exemption ended Jan. 15, means Canadian long-haul truck drivers should now be vaccinated towards COVID-19 to keep away from a two-week quarantine after crossing the border, whereas unvaccinated non-Canadian truck drivers might be denied entry.

The U.S. introduced in its personal vaccine mandate for truckers on Saturday, which signifies that unvaccinated Canadian drivers may even be unable to return under the border.

In separate statements, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and the Canadian Manufacturing Coalition each urged Trudeau to again down.

Perrin Beatty, the president of the chamber, stated that whereas “we strongly favour getting as many individuals vaccinated as potential,” the federal government ought to permit extra time earlier than imposing the mandate on truckers.

“Till now, governments have thought of truckers to be offering an important service, which has saved provide chains functioning even throughout essentially the most critical waves of the pandemic,” Beatty stated in a written response to questions.

However Beatty stated the federal government hasn’t produced statistics that present that truckers are a serious supply of COVID-19 infections in Canada.

Neither Well being Minister Jean-Yves Duclos nor chief public well being officer Dr. Theresa Tam have been in a position to present any knowledge about COVID-19 and truck drivers when requested final week on the Home of Commons well being committee.

“If the federal government has such figures and has been involved that they pose a selected risk, they need to have had an academic program directed particularly at them lengthy prior to now and so they may have labored with the provinces and trade to arrange cell vaccination clinics close to border crossings and truck stops all through Canada,” stated Beatty.

“What we're asking for is that they delay implementation at a time when provide chains are beneath extreme stress and that they use that point to encourage and facilitate vaccinations.”

The Canadian Manufacturing Coalition, which represents over 30 manufacturing commerce associations, referred to as for a full reversal of the vaccine mandate after assembly Friday with Business Minister François-Philippe Champagne.

Dennis Darby, the president of Canadian Producers & Exporters, which chairs the coalition, informed Champagne that “Canadians are seeing empty cabinets” as a result of vaccine mandates are making provide chain bottlenecks worse.

In an announcement, Darby stated the assembly with Champagne was “a great first step however now we have to see concrete motion by the federal government to start out addressing these challenges, beginning with reversing the trucker vaccine mandate.”

Provide chains have been already struggling from two years of pandemic interruption, employees falling sick with COVID-19, and a number of climate occasions together with snowstorms and final fall’s flooding in British Columbia.

On Monday, Trudeau confirmed no indicators of adjusting the mandate, and stated getting vaccinated was the easiest way to maintain Canada’s economic system going. He stated in French that the Conservatives are heightening fears about empty retailer cabinets.

The prime minister reiterated that the Canadian Trucking Alliance says 90 per cent of truck drivers are already vaccinated. On Sunday, the alliance denounced a convoy of lots of of truckers now making its solution to Ottawa to protest the mandate.

“The truth is that vaccination is the way in which we're going to get by way of,” Trudeau stated in French.

The Conservatives are pressuring Trudeau to raise the mandate, calling it a danger to Canada’s economic system provide chains and financial restoration.

Conservative Chief Erin O’Toole has referred to as on the federal government to permit unvaccinated truckers to take fast exams and argued the consequences on public well being can be minimal.

O’Toole stopped wanting saying Monday that he would meet with the truck convoy. He additionally refused to point whether or not its members have his help.

“It’s not for the chief of the Opposition or a political celebration to attend a protest on the Hill or a convoy,“ he stated in Ottawa.

Former Conservative chief Andrew Scheer appeared at a convoy that rolled into Ottawa in 2019 protesting a spread of points, together with the Liberal authorities’s power insurance policies.

Over the weekend, Liberals and Conservatives used social media in warring posts about whether or not shops cabinets have been full or empty. Conservative transport critic Melissa Lantsman was accused of deceptive Canadians by sharing a photograph of empty cabinets that turned out to be a inventory picture of a British grocery retailer.

A number of Liberal supporters and staffers posted pictures of totally stocked cabinets as proof that there was no provide chain problem.

This report by The Canadian Press was first revealed Jan. 24, 2022.