The Public Health Agency levied quarantine fines on cross-border travelers at the rate of more than $61,000 a day, records show. Most travelers were fined $5,000 at a time for a total of $14.9 million..“While the Public Health Agency works closely with local law enforcement and receives data on most enforcement activities taken under the Quarantine Act, police services are not required to send enforcement information to the Agency,” cabinet wrote in an Inquiry Of Ministry tabled in the House of Commons. “As such there may be enforcement activities not reflected in Agency data.”.Data showed in the period from Jan. 1 to Aug. 31 a total 3,614 tickets were issued against travelers for breach of quarantine rules. Most were at land crossings..Fines totaled $14,886,750 over the 243-day period, the equivalent of $61,262 a day. The figures were requested by Conservative MP Eric Duncan (Stormont-Dundas, Ont.)..Of 3,614 tickets issued the largest number were for entering Canada without proof of a negative COVID test (45%), “refusal to answer relevant questions asked by an Agency officer” (36%), refusal to complete a second test on arrival (6% and attempting to enter the country with a fake or invalid test result (3%)..Cabinet lifted all Quarantine Act provisions October 1. An earlier report by the Auditor General concluded enforcement of quarantine rules was expensive and ineffectual. “This is not a success story,” Auditor General Karen Hogan told reporters last December 9..Auditors in a report Enforcement Of Quarantine And COVID-19 Testing Orders: Public Health Agency said enforcement from March 2020 to August 2021 cost taxpayers $614 million with incomplete evidence it kept Canada safe. The Public Health Agency could not verify Covid tests for 30 percent of travelers let into Canada nor verify that 75% of air passengers referred to quarantine hotels actually checked in..“Without verifying travelers’ compliance with mandatory quarantine orders the Public Health Agency cannot know whether its approach to enforcing the orders is effective,” wrote auditors..“I am concerned the Public Health Agency is unable to show us whether or not these border measures are effective,” said Auditor Hogan. “The Agency’s inability to confirm whether more than one third of travelers complied with quarantine orders remains a significant problem.”.Cabinet within two weeks of the March 11, 2020 outbreak of the pandemic invoked a cascading series of rules on cross-border travelers. “It’s really important that people take this seriously,” then-Health Minister Patricia Hajdu said at the time.
