N.B. seeks special access to Nova Scotia for New Brunswickers who are vaccinated
New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs said he's made a proposal to Nova Scotia Premier Iain Rankin that he thinks could lead to more relaxed travel rules for people travelling from New Brunswick to Nova Scotia.
Higgs said New Brunswick has a similar percentage of its population that is vaccinated and similarly low case numbers, so he doesn't think there should be a major concern about New Brunswickers, but he does understand why Nova Scotia is concerned about travellers from other provinces.
"I know he's in a difficult position but we've got to get this border thing sorted out," Higgs told CTV Anchor Steve Murphy in an interview on Wednesday evening. "We are similarly vaccinated between Nova Scotia, New Brunswick P.E.I. and Newfoundland. We can open the border, we can open a bubble for all of our citizens with Atlantic Canada, but the ones coming from other parts of the country, we can treat them the way that we want to in our respective provinces."
Higgs hopes the proposal that he has made to Rankin will smooth things over.
"I think that was a bit of a learning curve because there was a belief that we changed something at our borders and we didn't," Higgs said. "We're doing the same thing we've been doing from the beginning. We still maintain our border with Quebec and we're stopping every car where we analyze where people are going, whether those go through P.E.I. or Newfoundland."
Higgs said he has offered to share all of this information with Nova Scotia.
"I said (Wednesday) that we record all this information we've been doing it for 16 months, we can share with you, who's coming to your province and you can decide how you want them to be tested or impacted once they arrive, and that would cover that."
Higgs said New Brunswick has already shared this information in the past, and is willing to continue sharing it.
Nova Scotia chose to place restrictions on people travelling from New Brunswick because it decided to open its border to the rest of Canada. Nova Scotia was concerned about higher case counts in other provinces west of New Brunswick.
Higgs said this arrangement would allow people who live in New Brunswick to travel more freely, while closely monitoring the people who travel through New Brunswick from points west.
"If you want to test them at your border, you can do that, you want them to isolate based on your rules, you can do that," Higgs said. "That is entirely your decision. But to go the next level and say beyond that, we need to do something differently for all New Brunswick citizens and therefore we can open the bubble otherwise, you know, I think that's that's kind of going a bit overboard."
You can watch the full interview here.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'They needed people inside Air Canada:' Police announce arrests in Pearson gold heist
Police say one former and one current employee of Air Canada are among the nine suspects that are facing charges in connection with the gold heist at Pearson International Airport last year.
House admonishes ArriveCan contractor in rare parliamentary show of power
MPs enacted an extraordinary, rarely used parliamentary power on Wednesday, summonsing an ArriveCan contractor to appear before the House of Commons where he was admonished publicly and forced to provide answers to the questions MPs said he'd previously evaded.
Leafs star Auston Matthews finishes season with 69 goals
Auston Matthews won't be joining the NHL's 70-goal club this season.
Trump lawyers say Stormy Daniels refused subpoena outside a Brooklyn bar, papers left 'at her feet'
Donald Trump's legal team says it tried serving Stormy Daniels a subpoena as she arrived for an event at a bar in Brooklyn last month, but the porn actor, who is expected to be a witness at the former president's criminal trial, refused to take it and walked away.
Why drivers in Eastern Canada could see big gas price spikes, and other Canadians won't
Drivers in Eastern Canada face a big increase in gas prices because of various factors, especially the higher cost of the summer blend, industry analysts say.
Doug Ford calls on Ontario Speaker to reverse Queen's Park keffiyeh ban
Ontario Premier Doug Ford is calling on Speaker Ted Arnott to reverse a ban on keffiyehs at Queen's Park, describing the move as “needlessly” divisive.
'A living nightmare': Winnipeg woman sentenced following campaign of harassment against man after online date
A Winnipeg woman was sentenced to house arrest after a single date with a man she met online culminated in her harassing him for years, and spurred false allegations which resulted in the innocent man being arrested three times.
Woman who pressured boyfriend to kill his ex in 2000s granted absences from prison
A woman who pressured her boyfriend into killing his teenage ex more than a decade ago will be allowed to leave prison for weeks at a time.
Customers disappointed after email listing $60K Tim Hortons prize sent in error
Several Tim Horton’s customers are feeling great disappointment after being told by the company that an email stating they won a boat worth nearly $60,000 was sent in error.