TORONTO — ACITA’s e-Petition calls on the federal government to eliminate Canada’s pre-arrival PCR testing requirement.

Travelweek caught up with ACITA co-founder Judith Coates following the Feb. 15, 2022 update about Canada’s eased travel measures, to find out if ACITA’s e-petition was still a going concern. Effective Feb. 28, 2022, fully vaccinated travellers arriving in Canada will have the option of antigen testing to meet the pre-arrival testing requirement.

Coates told Travelweek that while the eased restrictions were welcome, “we’d still like to see a complete lifting of the requirement for any testing in-destination. So, yes, we will still continue to promote the e-Petition, and hopefully the next restriction lifted will be the antigen test.”

Open for signatures, the e-Petition comes on the heels of a new survey of ACITA members that found that more than 65% of travel advisors believe that in-destination PCR testing has been the single greatest deterrent for consumers to book new travel. According to the survey, clients are most worried about testing positive for COVID-19 while in destination, and then having to quarantine in a foreign country.

A growing list of countries have already eliminated the requirement of a negative pre-departure COVID-19 test result for vaccinated travellers, including but not limited to the U.K., Ireland, Sweden, Spain, Germany and Denmark.

The e-Petition, sponsored by MP Melissa Lantsman, Shadow Minister for Transport, asks the federal government to remove the requirement for travellers to obtain a negative PCR test for re-entry into Canada.

Petition #e-3835 will be open for signatures until March 10, 2022. Travel industry professionals and their clients are encouraged to sign here.