Ontario sisters still waiting for random COVID-19 border test more than a week after returning from trip

At first, Tori Nixon thought the email was a scam.

In it, the federal government wrote that either Nixon or her sister had been selected for a mandatory random COVID-19 test at Toronto Pearson Airport on May 29, but that it had not been completed — and that they could face a fine as a result.

A call to a government hotline revealed the email was real.

The trouble, Nixon says, is that the pair were never told about the testing at the airport, and only found out about it through the email three days later.

"It's been confusing and chaotic," she told CBC News. "We weren't pulled aside, we weren't in a separate line, everything was normal." 

It's now been nearly two weeks since the sisters returned home to Oakville, Ont., from their vacation in Ireland and they're still waiting to receive a kit for the random border testing.

"It seems pretty counterproductive at this point," said Nixon. "If we had COVID coming back, we could have been out spreading it. If we test positive now, how do we know that we got it abroad?"

The Nixon sisters' experience comes amid mounting calls from airport operators and business leaders for the federal government to scrap random testing and other public health measures at customs to help ease hours-long delays some passengers face when they arrive in Canada. 

But last week, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) announced COVID-19 restrictions would remain in place at airports and land borders until at least June 30. 

In a statement, a spokesperson for PHAC acknowledged it was aware of instances where travellers may not have been advised they were selected for the mandatory random testing until receiving the follow-up email.

"PHAC is working with the Canada Border Services Agency towards a resolution," read the statement. "Mandatory randomized testing continues to be an essential part of the Government of Canada's surveillance program to track the level of importation of COVID-19 virus into Canada, and identify new variants of concern."

Since the spring of 2021, the federal government has awarded contracts to private vendors worth up to a collective $1.1 billion for COVID-19 border testing, according to information provided by Public Services and Procurement Canada.

New contracts have been granted, and existing contracts have been extended, to cover border testing services across the country until at least July 31. LifeLabs took over as the provider for Ontario starting June 1, after receiving a contract worth up to $35.6 million to provide border testing services till the end of July, with an option to extend for longer.

Many infectious disease experts say that money would be better spent elsewhere.