In addition to extending its stay-at-home order and state of emergency to six weeks and limiting outdoor gatherings in an effort to fight COVID-19, Ontario is also restricting interprovincial travel.
Premier Doug Ford announced today that land travel will be restricted between Ontario, Quebec, and Manitoba starting Monday, April 19 at 12:01 a.m. Ford said checkpoints will be set up starting next week.
Travel between the provinces will only be permitted for work, medical reasons, the transport of goods, and exercising Indigenous treaty rights. Solicitor General Sylvia Jones says anyone without a permitted reason to travel will be turned away at the provincial border.
"We're currently facing the devastating consequences of COVID variants that entered Canada through our borders at the start of this year," said Ford in this afternoon's press conference. "We need to do more to stop other even deadlier variants from getting into Canada and causing more havoc."
Ford also called on the federal government to step up their efforts to limit air travel in and out of the country, pointing to the more than 36,000 people who pass through Toronto's Pearson International Airport weekly.
A state of emergency was declared in Ontario on April 7. Another stay-at-home order took effect on April 8.
Cabinet met again this morning following the province’s latest round of modelling, which showed Ontario could reach 30,000 daily COVID-19 cases if public health measures are relaxed and a stay-at-home order isn’t in place.
