Upcoming vaccination, quarantine requirement dropped for Canadian truckers re-entering the country

Canadian truckers crossing back into Canada will not be required to quarantine or take the vaccine in order to re-enter the country, the Canadian government has decided. 

Canada’s border agency announced the change in plans on Wednesday, January 12th after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau relented to pressure from trucking lobbyists and more to drop the vaccine requirement for truckers. 

The vaccine mandate for truckers was initially scheduled to go into effect on Saturday, January 15th, and would have required unvaccinated truckers returning to Canada from the US to quarantine for 14 days. Now, the Canada Border Services Agency says that unvaccinated or partially vaccinated truck drivers will be exempt from pre-arrival, arrival, and post-arrival testing and quarantine requirements. US truckers attempting to enter Canada will still face a vaccine requirement and will be turned away at the border if they are unvaccinated. 

Reuters reports that the Canadian government dropped the upcoming requirements to reduce potential supply chain disruptions caused by truck drivers quitting as a result of the mandate. The Canadian Trucking alliance had estimated that as many as 10% of cross-border Canadian truck drivers, between 12,000 and 16,000, would quit their jobs if the vaccine mandate was put into place.