COVID-19: Trudeau supports limiting travel within Canada if necessary

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – There appears to be growing support for restricting travel between provinces and territories in an effort to curb the spread of COVID-19.

And that effort starts in B.C.

On Wednesday, after months of pressure from the likes of John Horgan and other premiers, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told the CBC he supports political leaders doing what they need to do to keep their provinces and territories safe.

“As we saw with the Atlantic bubble, as we saw with the the Arctic territories, they make decisions around closing off the regions. That is something that we are supportive of,” he said, adding it’s the federal government’s job to help facilitate those decisions by providing support.

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B.C.’s premier has said legal issues have prevented him from putting restrictions in on his own, preferring he and his counterparts come up with what he’s called a “pan-Canadian approach.”

Either way, the idea is the same.

“Do only those things that are essential to you, and your family, and your business, and your employment. Other than that, stay tight, stay focused on bending that curve,” Horgan said in previous months.

He and other officials have repeatedly stressed the importance of staying close to home and avoiding all activities that may increase transmission.

This week, Horgan told reporters a local travel ban was not off the table.

“We will use the tools that are available to us if we believe that they will be effective. But effective deployment of these rules is the challenge, and we’ve been talking about that for a year as well,” the premier said Tuesday.

The federal government has closed the Canada-U.S. land border to all non-essential traffic, but there is currently no enforceable restriction on travel around many of the provinces.

In January, the B.C. government said a review of legal options made it clear it could not prevent people from travelling to the province from other parts of Canada.

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