The new federal requirement for a negative COVID-19 test before crossing the border is supposed to keep Canadians safe from a raging pandemic.
But it's also forcing some Americans — who haven't self-isolated, or tested for COVID-19 — to travel into Canada for necessities like groceries, even though U.S. communities are closer to them.
"How many Manitobans was I within proximity of in the grocery store right now?" asked Paul Colson, as he placed a box of club soda into his SUV in Steinbach, Man., two hours from his home in the U.S.
A resident of Angle Inlet, Minn., Colson is cut off from his own country by pandemic restrictions that complicated border crossings.
His hometown, better known as the Northwest Angle, is one of the most isolated areas in the United States. It's surrounded on three sides by Canada and a body of water to the south.
Although the Canada-U.S. border has been closed to non-essential travel throughout the pandemic, Angle residents were allowed to travel to the rest of the U.S. for some purposes via their only land link — a barren road that runs through southeastern Manitoba.
But in February, the Canadian government
introduced a requirement that non-essential travellers entering Canada by land have a negative COVID-19 test less than three days old.
An exemption to the Canadian rule for a very few communities — including the Northwest Angle — allows residents there to enter Canada without a test "only to access necessities of life from the closest Canadian community" where they're available.
That means Colson can travel to Steinbach for groceries.
But the exemption doesn't say he can cross through Manitoba into mainland Minnesota, and then back across the border to get to his home in the Northwest Angle — even though that would mean a shorter trip than going to Steinbach.
Curiously, the order gives residents of a similarly isolated border town — Point Roberts, Wash. — an exception if they enter either Canada or the U.S.
The Public Health Agency of Canada didn't explain the discrepancy when asked by CBC News.