File Photo (Image Credit: CFJC today)

By Jill Sperling

Pandemic Travel

Kamloops woman not asked for COVID-19 test result when returning from U.S. Saturday

Jan 12, 2021 | 5:02 PM

KAMLOOPS — The federal government is now requiring airline passengers to provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test prior to boarding a flight back to Canada.

According to Transport Canada, air carriers must deny boarding for anyone who does not follow the new guidelines, or provides a positive or inconclusive test result.

The test must also have been performed within 72 hours of the scheduled departure. This requirement went into place at midnight on Jan. 7.

A Kamloops woman, who asked not be identified, says she complied with the new policy when she returned to the country Jan. 9, but it was not enforced.

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“It was, to me, very frustrating because the government has us jumping through all these hoops on a policy that they mandated very quickly with really no forethought in place on who’s doing what,” she said.

The woman had travelled to Seattle for business on Jan. 2. She says she was aware that she would need to have a negative COVID-19 test in order to return to Canada a week later.

“The problem that I was finding was that none of these labs were guaranteeing a 24-to-48-hour result,” she said. “Everyone had three-to-five business days, but again could not guarantee that. Most of them were saying you’ve got to have at least a week because all the labs were incredibly busy in the United States, as we know.”

Eventually, the woman was able to book an appointment at a testing site located inside Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The site guaranteed a result within 24 hours, but cost $250 USD.

Having received her negative test result in time, the woman went to the airport on Saturday, Jan. 9 and prepared to board her Air Canada flight to Vancouver.

“I was thinking, well who do we show these results to? They hadn’t mentioned anything in the pre-boarding, you know they used to say, ‘Have your ID ready, have your boarding pass ready,’ so my assumption was, ‘and have your PCR test results ready.'”

The woman says no one was asked for their test results. She approached the agents at the counter to ask to whom she should show her results.

“The gate agents, there were two of them, both looked at me and said, ‘Oh, you don’t show them to us, you show them to Customs and Immigration.”

In an email to CFJC Today, Transport Canada states, “Air carriers are responsible for providing the necessary training so that their employees can apply this new measure… Air carriers failing to comply with the requirements of Transport Canada’s Interim Order or other regulatory requirements under the Aeronautics Act could be subject to a fine of up to $25,000.”

Air Canada did not respond to a request for comment by deadline.

Transport Canada also says travellers should also show proof of a negative COVID-19 test to a Canada Border Services Agency officer upon arrival to Canada.

According to the woman, she was not asked for her results even as she went through customs.

“I kind of looked at her and I said, ‘Umm, are we not missing something here?’ She had a blank look on her face. And I said, ‘Are you not supposed to be checking our PCR test results? And she looked at me and then she said, ‘Oh, do you have it?'”

The officer did not appear to know how to read the test results.

The woman, who is currently in quarantine away from her family, says she is not opposed to the testing requirement, but says clarity is needed to ensure all parties know what they are supposed to be doing.