That seems to be the reaction of our hapless snowbirds, now that February 22 has been announced as the date international travellers arriving by air will have to quarantine for up to three days at designated hotels, costing them about $2000.
It just isn't fair, according to our older citizens, apparently too fragile to endure Canadian winters but hale enough to risk Covid-19 in southern hotspots.
Valorie Crooks, Canada research chair in health service geographies, says:
There are many reasons behind snowbirds’ decisions to travel to warmer climates each year, including during the pandemic ....
“You get a lot of people discussing things like improved arthritis symptoms, even changes to the amount of medication that is required.”
Others have planned their retirement finances around “snowbirding” and the pandemic has not changed that budgetary reality, she said.
It's not as if they weren't warned about travelling during a pandemic:
Toronto-based insurance broker Martin Firestone said he’s advised against travelling during the pandemic, but more than a thousand of his snowbird clients are abroad and they’re all opposed to the hotel quarantine.
He said about a third of his clients headed south in November and hundreds more were spurred on in January by the accessibility of COVID-19 vaccine in Florida for people age 65 and older, though Firestone is careful not to count his clients among “vaccine tourists,” since most own property there.
Exceptions should be made, according to people like Denise Dumont, a Canadian living full time in Fort Lauderdale, asserting
snowbirds “don’t act like regular visitors.”
“I don’t think it is fair to treat them like a simple visitor who will go for an all-inclusive two-week vacation in Mexico,” said Dumont, the editor in chief of Le Soleil de la Floride, an online source for francophone news in Florida.
As much as some might feel for the plight of these hapless oldsters, the only thing I can suggest is that on their return flight, they might want to give a listen to the following to reflect on the often cruel vagaries of life.
