By Chris Brown

'Completely unacceptable'

Trudeau slams non-essential travellers, says sickness benefit not for their quarantine

Jan 5, 2021 | 10:23 AM

OTTAWA – Speaking from outside Rideau Cottage, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau slammed those who are taking vacations abroad during the COVID-19 pandemic and banking on the Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit to pay for their quarantine period, calling it “completely unacceptable.”

He said the benefit is to protect people who need it, such as workers who become symptomatic but need the income to pay the bills or those at higher risk of catching the virus due to pre-existing conditions.

“We didn’t imagine when we passed it with unanimous support of all parties that people would use it to pay for their quarantine after they had gone south or a two-week vacation,” said the prime minister.

Politicians and government officials have been under fire for a week for non-essential travel and a new poll found nearly half of Canadians visited friends and family over the holidays.

The benefit provides $500 per week for up to two weeks for workers who are sick or must self-isolate for reasons related to COVID-19. Trudeau said the government will be revising the rules to make eligibility more clear, but didn’t say when that will be done.

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Trudeau says with two COVID-19 vaccines approved in Canada and close to half a million doses delivered to Canadians last month that there is reason for optimism in 2021.

“By September we’ll have enough doses to vaccinate every Canadian that wants a shot. This pandemic will end, we will get through this. Better days are on the horizon, but to get there we need to keep holding on.”

He also said he’s unhappy to see vaccines sitting in freezers instead of being administered to patients and will bring it up with the premiers in a Thursday conference call.

Trudeau said now is the time to work harder and work together and that even as cases are rising people need to remember the country will get through this.

Trudeau said he has no interest in imposing federal lockdown measures, saying each region is facing different issues and the federal government is more interested in supporting the provinces’ plans.