Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) has provided the Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) additional guidance on the Public Health Agency of Canada’s (PHAC) directive that CBSA implement a policy, effective immediately, requiring all essential workers crossing the border to wear a non-medical mask or face covering.
CBSA has indicated that any face mask that demonstrates a reasonable “good-faith” effort to adhere to the requirement will be accepted, as they understand there is a limited supply of medical grade masks available. This could include the use of scarfs, bandanas or other materials. As per yesterday’s CTA newsflash, CBSA will be distributing masks at ports of entry free of charge when they are available to drivers who are not in possession of their own mask or face covering. At this time, CBSA has indicated no driver will be denied entry into Canada or be directed to secondary.
In addition, PHAC has stated that persons that are exempt from mandatory quarantine are still required to wear an appropriate mask or face covering upon entry into Canada, and that all travellers arriving in Canada will be required to wear a non-medical mask or face covering to proceed to their final destination within Canada to mitigate the potential spread of COVID-19.
For additional information, Transport Canada has developed guidelines and instructions on non-medical face masks in partnership with PHAC which can be found here.