Peeved Canadian snowbirds devising plans to avoid hotel-quarantine ‘jail’
Jacqueline and Carey Ellingson, Canadian snowbirds in Yuma, Ariz., are scheduled to fly home March 9. But instead of enjoying their final weeks in this desert oasis - reputed to be the sunniest place on Earth" - the couple from Barrhead, Alta., say their anxiety levels couldn't be higher.
Since the federal government announced that most air travellers arriving in Canada will soon be required - at their own expense - to book a room in a government-approved hotel for three nights while they await the results of a COVID-19 test, the Ellingsons have been scrambling to find alternative arrangements to get home.
They say they are on a fixed income and can't afford a mandatory hotel quarantine. So as a backup plan, they've tentatively booked a car rental that will take them from Yuma to Great Falls, Mont., and then another car rental that will allow them to drive across the border into Alberta.
At one point, they even considered taking an Uber from Great Falls to the border and then just walking across.
It's like changing the rules of a baseball game halfway through," Jacqueline said Thursday. It's a logistical nightmare."
For a population whose raison d'etre is stress-free winters, the latest COVID-19 rules have brought a mix of frustration and confusion. When the Star posted a message on the Snowbirds in and around Arizona" Facebook group Thursday, seeking reaction to the pending new measures, dozens of members took the opportunity to vent.
Many said that while they have no problem getting COVID-tested prior to departure and quarantining for 14 days at home, being required to stay in a hotel for three nights goes too far.
I will NOT be paying to eat stale bagels and an apple in a hotel that I would not ever have been able to afford to stay in," one member wrote.
I have already sent off my scorching response to the PM of Canada. I find it so typical that the Canadian government so flagrantly wants to trample my constitutional rights," wrote another.
This is not wartime, I am not an enemy of Canada," wrote yet another.
In a public statement this week, the Canadian Snowbird Association said while it supported point-of-entry testing at airports and land crossings, it was firmly opposed" to the mandatory hotel quarantine measure.
To force Canadian citizens to pay over $2,000 for three nights of accommodation in a government approved hotel is unreasonable and will be a financial hardship for many," the statement said.
The association noted that some countries that have introduced similar protocols have allowed exemptions for certain travellers.
In New Zealand, for example, citizens and residents who are returning to New Zealand for longer than 90 days or who left New Zealand prior to the regulations coming into effect are not charged for managed isolation. If the Government of Canada is unwilling to allow Canadian citizens and residents to quarantine at their homes, the government should at least implement a similar exemption."
The association has not yet received a reply from the government, spokesperson Evan Rachkovsky said Thursday.
He said most Canadian snowbirds abroad right now are just waiting to hear more details from the government before finalizing travel plans back to Canada. One outstanding question is whether the mandatory hotel quarantine will be applied to those coming into Canada via the land border, too, he said.
Mary-Liz Power, press secretary to Public Safety Minister Bill Blair, said the pending hotel quarantine measures do not currently apply to those driving across the border. However, those crossing by land will soon be required to present COVID-19 test results before being allowed through, similar to the way air travellers have to present test results prior to boarding flights for Canada.
As for when the new testing and quarantine requirements will come into effect, Tammy Jarbeau, a spokesperson for Health Canada, said only that it will be in the coming weeks." Details explaining those requirements are expected in the coming days."
The Alberta-based Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, meanwhile, has said that it is actively preparing to file legal action imminently" in response to the government's mandatory hotel quarantine measures.
If the Government refuses, we will take this matter to Court and ask a Judge to order the government to stop at the earliest possible court date," says a statement on its website.
The Ellingsons say that had they known these rules were coming prior to leaving for Arizona in November they likely would not have made the trip.
They say it's unfair they are now being saddled with the prospect of additional costs. Someone who's contemplating a trip now at least can budget and plan for that, she said.
We couldn't plan for this - it was thrown on our laps unfairly."
June Garcia, another snowbird in Yuma, agrees, saying it's as if they are being unfairly punished when they didn't do anything wrong.
Garcia, of Fort St. John, B.C., says she and her husband, Tom, have been in Arizona since October and are scheduled to fly back in April. The prospect of having to stay in a hotel for three nights upon arrival is daunting, she said.
That's because Tom is paraplegic. Both their homes in British Columbia and Arizona are retrofitted inside and out to accommodate his wheelchair and other needs, she said.
That would not be the case in a hotel.
That's what it would be - jail," she said. And we have to pay for it and we've not done anything wrong."
She adds that she and her husband have already received their first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine and are scheduled for their second.
They do have a van in Arizona and could potentially drive it back to B.C., she says, but the drive would take five days - also very challenging.
Several residents told the Star if the hotel quarantine rules stick, they are tempted just to postpone their return trip home.
Susan Chaytor, a recent retiree from Penticton, B.C., who has been renting a place in Destin, Fla., since early December, says she's scheduled to fly home at the end of February but may cancel her flight and extend her stay.
At this point, I don't even want to go back, as I feel my country is punishing me for nothing more than daring to see the sun. Since when did this become a crime?" said Chaytor.
But having said that, it's expensive to live here. I can wait it out until April."
Some snowbirds who opted to remain in Canada this winter say fellow snowbirds who now find themselves in a bind should have known that a clampdown was a possibility.
I'm a snowbird and although I wish we had gone to our place in AZ this season we chose not to," Linda Vanderkolk wrote on the Arizona Facebook group.
We all heard from the government that we should not be flying anywhere and that restrictions could change at any time with or without notice. As a result, there should be no surprise here. I understand the frustration and anger yet this was always a possibility. Some people took chances while others did not."
Douglas Quan is a Vancouver-based reporter for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @dougquan