QUESTION PERIOD — Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
Coronavirus Screening at Airports
March 12, 2020
Honourable senators, any European wanting to travel to the United States need only come to Canada and travel there from here, and we will be implicated in helping them come to the United States.
Leader, your government has repeatedly assured Canadians that proper screening is taking place at our airports. Yesterday afternoon, after Air Canada’s last flight from Italy — until May — landed at Montreal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport in Montreal, passengers reported that no one had been screened upon landing; no one asked them questions in Montreal. They had simply been handed a piece of paper with coronavirus information.
Leader, some of these passengers had come from northern Italy, which has been a major centre of the spread of coronavirus. This is a very serious matter. Canadians expect our government to lead on this. Does your government consider what happened at the Trudeau Airport yesterday to be adequate? If not, what are you going to do to improve the health screening at our airports?
Again, thank you for your question and for underlining the concern that all of us as Canadians feel in the face of this growing challenge.
I have been advised that enhanced screening and detection processes are being added at all international airports, and that would include the Trudeau Airport in my hometown, as well as at land, border, ferry and rail ports of entry. I’m also advised that Canada Border Services Agency agents are visually inspecting all travellers for signs of illness and will refer them to appropriate authorities as required. In that regard, the CBSA is working in close cooperation with the Public Health Agency of Canada to implement and operationalize best practices.
If I may add one final comment with regard to the challenge or the merits of a travel ban. I will quote Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, who noted recently:
. . . as the number of countries increases, border measures are less effective and less feasible. So trying to focus on one country versus another can be much less reasonable as an approach, or effective.
