Premier Doug Ford complains to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of ‘no action’ on borders to tackle COVID-19

Premier Doug Ford is escalating his calls to Ottawa for tighter border controls to limit the spread of COVID-19.

After three unsuccessful requests for action from his cabinet ministers to their federal counterparts, Ford has written Prime Minister Justin Trudeau directly.

“I want to thank you again for your collaboration during the COVID-19 pandemic,” the Progressive Conservative premier, who has worked closely with the Liberal prime minister throughout the 14-month crisis, wrote Wednesday.

His letter was released to the public Thursday.

“Ontarians, and all Canadians, expect their governments to work together, and that is why I am once again asking for your help to address the issues at our borders,” wrote Ford, adding he is “disappointed” the province’s recommendations have not been heeded.

On April 22, Ford’s government asked for a reduction in “incoming international flights to lessen the mobility of COVID-19 variants and roll out further protective actions at the Canada-U.S. land border.”

Four days later, the Tories asked for pre-departure polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing for “all domestic air travellers entering Ontario, consistent with the requirements for international flights.”

Then, on April 29, they demanded the “loophole” at Canada’s international land borders be closed “by implementing a mandatory 3-day hotel quarantine in federally designated hotels at the highest traffic crossings” like Fort Erie, Niagara Falls, and Windsor.

“To date, there has been no action on any of these requests and no indication that anything is coming,” complained Ford.

“As you are aware, Ontario is currently fighting an extremely challenging third wave fuelled by variants, including the B.1.1.7 variant that has now become the dominant strain in the province,” he noted.

“Recently, we have also seen new travel-related cases of the B.1.617 variant in Niagara, Ottawa, and London, and confirmed cases of the P1 variant in Hamilton.”

Ford said over the past fortnight, 40 domestic and 24 international flights landed at Pearson International Airport with confirmed cases of COVID-19.

“Unfortunately, because there is currently no testing requirement for domestic travellers, passengers who may have been exposed on the domestic flights are immediately able to move around within Canada.”

The premier added that over that same two-week time frame, “172,000 individuals, excluding essential truck drivers, have crossed Canada’s international border” and many of these travellers entered at the land border to bypass mandatory hotel quarantine.”

His border push to Ottawa comes at the same time as the PC party is airing campaign-style TV, radio, and online ads, attacking Trudeau over the borders.

Last week, the prime minister said “if the Ontario government wants to do more to restrict the volume of people coming into Ontario, we are more than happy to work with them on it.”

But he chided the provincial Tories for their ad blitz.

“It’s been a week since we’ve received that request directly from the premier, that they haven’t followed up on, except with personal attacks, which doesn’t make sense and frankly won’t help Ontarians.”

Trudeau said he told Queen’s Park he could impose stricter limits on temporary foreign workers, farm workers, and international students.

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Ford will meet with reporters later Thursday where he expected to announce that Ontario’s stay-at-home order, in effect since April 17, will be extended to June 2. It had been slated to expire May 19.

That order has, among other things, closed golf courses and tennis and basketball courts in a bid to limit mobility that scientists say contributes to the spread of COVID-19.

About 8,400 Ontarians have died from the virus since it struck in March 2020.

Robert Benzie is the Star’s Queen’s Park bureau chief and a reporter covering Ontario politics. Follow him on Twitter: @robertbenzie