Pricey COVID-19 test awaits travellers as lanes open Monday at Canada-U.S. land border

As of midnight, non-essential traffic will resume moving in both directions for the first time since March 2020.

The southbound lanes on the road to North America’s post-pandemic recovery will finally reopen Monday as the United States ends nearly 20 months of controversial COVID-19 exile and allows fully vaccinated travellers to cross the Canada-U.S. land border.

As of midnight, non-essential traffic will resume moving in both directions for the first time since March 2020, when both countries imposed sweeping but selective restrictions in hopes of slowing the spread of the virus — the first widespread border closure since the 9/11 terrorist attacks 20 years ago.

After nearly two years, however, the excitement isn’t exactly palpable.

“We’re on the other side of this, hopefully, but if the border were to ever close again, they really need to realize that families are essential,” said Kim Patchett, who lives with her husband Barry in Saugeen Shores, Ont., west of Owen Sound on the shores of Lake Huron.

Travelling to Philadelphia to visit daughter Kaity, her American son-in-law Jesse and three-year-old granddaughter Ilsa — a routine endeavour in the before times, costing just $80 for a tank of diesel fuel — has been an expensive and frustrating ordeal since the restrictions were imposed.

The couple made the trip twice, including once by air last Christmas, and then again in September for Ilsa’s third birthday. For that trip, they hired a helicopter to cross the border and a car-carrier service to deliver their SUV to American soil before driving the rest of the way.

Then there’s the Canadian requirement that all travellers submit the results of a recent PCR test to prove they aren’t sick, an expense that in Canada can run anywhere from $150-$300 per person.

All told, Patchett figures they’ve spent $6,000 on trips that would normally only have set them back $320.