Stamp prices rise for the third time in five years amid financial woes for Canada Post
Canada Post is increasing stamp prices for the third time since 2019, a move the Crown corporation says is a "reality" of its sales-based revenue structure.
Canadian snowbirds will be watching closely this week, suitcases at the ready and RVs full of fuel, to see if the United States finally eases the travel restrictions preventing them from driving south for the winter.
Some aren't waiting for the White House, opting for the perfectly legal option of flying to the U.S. instead -- and many are planning on getting a COVID-19 booster shot as soon as they get there, said Toronto travel insurance broker Martin Firestone.
"The feeling I'm getting from my clientele is, 'I will go down south as I always had planned to, but I will get my third booster shot down there and probably get it a lot quicker than I ever would waiting here,"' Firestone said in an interview.
"People who are heading south are going to go get that booster down in the States, I can assure you of that."
On Friday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration turned a few heads when it rejected the idea of a third shot for Americans aged 16 or older. The agency did, however, endorse a plan to make boosters available to people aged 65 or older, or at high risk of severe illness.
With Canada still a long way from formally deciding whether to offer boosters, many with U.S. travel plans simply don't want to wait for the federal health authorities and the individual provinces to make up their minds, Firestone said.
Others are waiting for the U.S. to give a green light to getting behind the wheel.
Tuesday is the deadline for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to declare whether it plans to ease the restrictions on non-essential travel over the Canada-U.S. land border, or extend the prohibition for another 30 days.
The U.S. has largely remained silent on when it might begin to ease the restrictions. Air and sea travellers are exempt from the ban, though passengers by rail, ferry and pleasure boat are not.
A fresh batch of U.S. Senate Democrats, including Michigan senators Debbie Stabenow and Gary Peters, Sen. Kirsten Gillebrand of New York and New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, wrote Friday to urge President Joe Biden to finally lift the ban.
"We believe that fully vaccinated Canadians should be allowed to safely travel into the United States via land ports of entry," reads the letter, which was also signed by New Hampshire Sen. Maggie Hassan, and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Sen. Angus King, the Independent from Maine.
"We urge you to lift these restrictions before October, provide a plan for reopening land ports of entry and appoint an interagency lead on U.S.-Canadian border restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic."
Establishing a liaison between the various agencies, the White House and Congress would help to ensure the issue gets the necessary attention and ensure lawmakers are kept in the loop, it continues.
"An interagency lead would facilitate discussions between the administration and our offices and ensure that we are able to effectively convey the concerns of our constituents as you evaluate the COVID-19 pandemic."
Homeland Security Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas, whose department oversees the U.S. border agency, acknowledged the growing frustration during a National Press Club event last week in Washington.
"We had hoped that by now, we would have opened up travel through the ports of entry, but regrettably, because of the Delta variant, we've been delayed in doing so," Mayorkas said.
The restrictions now include language that make it possible to relax or lift the ban entirely before the start of the next 30-day window, he added.
"Because we've renewed it for 30 days does not necessarily mean that the restriction will last for another 30 days," Mayorkas said. "We have the ability, of course, to ease it or to eliminate it sooner if the data suggests that we should."
He also acknowledged the southern border, scene of an escalating immigration crisis, is complicating matters. The department sent 400 more border agents and officers to the south Texas region where upwards of 14,000 migrants from Haiti have gathered, with more arriving daily, in hopes of winning asylum in the U.S.
Some experts say the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border is making the White House wary about easing travel restrictions, particularly when travel from Canada is still possible via air and trade and commercial shipments have been moving largely unfettered since the start of the pandemic.
But there are families at the southern border who are suffering under the restrictions as well, said Devon Weber, the founder of Let Us Reunite, a grassroots advocacy group that's pushing for the borders to be reopened.
"We cannot let migrants be used as a scapegoat for the government's bureaucratic paralysis regarding land border policy," Weber said in an email.
"There is a difference between immigration and opening the border to casual travel. The United States had 18 months to make a plan to safely reopen all the land borders and has chosen not to."
Firestone said older travellers want a vehicle at their disposal while in the U.S., and prefer to avoid the hassle of air travel, particularly since Canada's decision to allow fully vaccinated visitors has dramatically slowed what was already a plodding and delay-filled customs clearance process.
"We're hearing stories about three-hour waits on the plane on the tarmac, and then another two-hour wait in the building," he said. "Flying is not what it used to be."
Some want to take their RVs, which provide both transportation and accommodation. A shortage of available rental cars across North America has put a further premium on being able to take one's own car. And the cost of shipping a vehicle separately remains prohibitive.
Firestone said if the border reopens soon, he's anticipating demand for travel insurance to reach upwards of 90 per cent of what it was in 2019 before the pandemic hit. Without the land border being reopened, he said, that figure will be closer to 50 per cent.
"Another 30 days until Oct. 21 is really going to put a dent in the flow of traffic to the U.S., and it won't be good on many fronts," he said. "The bottom line is there should be no reason why the U.S. does not open the land border, in my opinion. And that's basically because there is zero risk."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2021.
This is a corrected story. A previous version referred to the U.S. Federal Drug Administration. The correct name for the federal agency is the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Canada Post is increasing stamp prices for the third time since 2019, a move the Crown corporation says is a "reality" of its sales-based revenue structure.
Defence lawyers of Jeremy Skibicki have admitted in court the accused killed four Indigenous women in Winnipeg, but argues he is not criminally responsible for the deaths by way of mental disorder – this latest development has triggered a judge-alone trial rather than a jury trial.
Democratic Institutions Minister Dominic LeBlanc will be tabling legislation on Monday aimed at countering foreign interference in Canada. Federal officials have scheduled a technical briefing on the incoming bill for Monday afternoon.
H5N1 or avian flu is decimating wildlife around the world and is now spreading among cattle in the United States, sparking concerns about 'pandemic potential' for humans. Now a health expert is urging Canada to scale up surveillance north of the border.
Polish prosecutors have discontinued an investigation into human skeletons found at a site where German dictator Adolf Hitler and other Nazi leaders spent time during the Second World War because the advanced state of decay made it impossible to determine the cause of death, a spokesman said Monday.
Italy's mafia rarely dirties its hands with blood these days. Extortion rackets have gone out of fashion and murders are largely frowned upon by the godfathers.
An Ontario MPP was asked again to leave the Ontario legislature on Monday for wearing a keffiyeh, a garment that was banned by the Speaker last month due to its political symbolism.
After his adopted parents died, Dave Rogers set out to learn more about his birth mother. DNA results and a little help from friendly strangers would put him on a path to a small town in England.
The judge presiding over Donald Trump's hush money trial fined him US$1,000 on Monday for violating his gag order once again and sternly warned the former president that additional violations could result in jail time.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.