The Ontario government is once again pressing the Prime Minister to toughen restrictions on flights into Canada.
Kenora-Rainy River Greg Rickford says 90% of COVID cases in the province are variants from other countries.
Rickford says right now there are too many flights landing in our large airports.
The Northern Development Minister says he recently was on a flight coming back to Winnipeg where two groups of variant concern countries had passengers on board.
He says those individuals came from connecting flights to Toronto without any quarantine.
“I was taken aback and I immediately went to Cabinet and said ‘What the heck is going on here’. There is no question these variants don’t swing across the ocean or fly on planes themselves. They come with people.”
Premier Doug Ford says he has made three formal requests to the federal government for more measures at the border and weeks have gone by and all they hear is just crickets.
Ford claims over 88,000 travellers entering Canada have been able to by-pass the mandatory three day hotel quarantine requirement.
He says the evidence is clear that variants pose a serious and deadly health risk and what’s happening now is doing nothing to keep variants out of Canada.
Ford stresses it’s time for the federal government to step up and do what’s right and necessary.
He adds Ontario is seeing private jets landing all over the province at smaller airports from sunny destinations.
Ford accuses the federal government of creating a two-tired quarantine system.
