british columbia travel restrictions

B.C. government introducing travel restrictions to free up accommodations for evacuees

The B.C. government is using the extraordinary powers granted to it under its state of emergency declaration to implement a restriction on tourism-related travel to areas affected by wildfires.

Premier David Eby announced the order at a news conference Saturday afternoon.

He said the order is intended to ensure sufficient temporary accommodations are available to people who are evacuating or are involved in fighting fires.

"The current situation is grim," Eby said, adding that there are about 35,000 people on evacuation order across the province and another 30,000 are on evacuation alert and may need to leave at a moment's notice.

"We have an urgent need for more accommodation," the premier said. "This order says, 'Stay off the roads for tourist-related, non-essential travel to stay in temporary accommodation.'"

The order applies specifically to the Okanagan region, according to Minister of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness Bowinn Ma.

"People, families, firefighters and other front-line responders need a safe place to stay during this extremely challenging and difficult time," Ma said. "Under this order, we are restricting travel to several communities for anyone planning on staying in temporary accommodation."

Communities included in the order are Kelowna, Kamloops, Oliver, Osoyoos, Penticton and Vernon, the minister said.

"Let me be clear: Temporary accommodation in the areas I have listed are no longer available for non-essential visits. If you do not need to travel to these areas for essential reasons, we need you to change your plans." Ma said.

She asked those who are currently vacationing in the area to consider cutting their visits short in order to free up more space.

"I want to thank everyone who has already cancelled their plans to travel to the Okanagan," Ma said. "Your efforts are helping."

The premier also thanked people for staying home, characterizing the order announced Saturday as the formalization of what the province was already requesting when it declared a state of emergency Friday . 

"We shouldn't need an order," he said. "Please, just stay out of these areas if you don't have to be there." 

Declaring a state of emergency grants the province extraordinary powers under the Emergency Program Act, allowing for swifter responses to rapidly developing crises.

Those powers can include restricting travel, forcing evacuations, and even commandeering personal property if doing so is deemed necessary for disaster response.

The government previously declared province-wide states of emergency in March 2020 as part of its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and in November 2021 following the historic floods and landslides that left several communities under water and cut off highway access to the Lower Mainland.

The declarations remain in place for two weeks by default, at which time they can be renewed or cancelled. Officials also have the ability to call them off at any time.

With files from CTV News Vancouver's Andrew Weichel 

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Covid-19 and travel.

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Last updated:  May 2024

Travelling within B.C.

Masks are encouraged, but not required, when travelling by air, train, public transit or BC Ferries. When travelling, follow the same precautions you use at home to prevent COVID-19. For more information see,  Province of British Columbia: COVID-19 guidance in B.C. .

For the latest recommendations on travel for non-essential purposes, visit:

• Province of British Columbia: COVID-19 guidance in B.C.
• Government of Canada: COVID-19: Travel, testing and borders

Travelling between provinces

British Columbians travelling to other provinces or territories were advised to check their destination's public health information for any travel restrictions and to follow local, provincial or territorial guidance.

For information from other provincial and territorial governments, visit:

• Alberta: COVID-19 info for Albertans
• Manitoba: COVID-19
• New Brunswick: Visiting New Brunswick
• Newfoundland and Labrador: Travel Advice
• Northwest Territories: Health and Social Services COVID-19
• Nova Scotia: Coronavirus (COVID-19): Updates and resources for travel to and within Nova Scotia
• Nunavut: Travel Checklist
• Ontario: Protection from COVID‑19 and other respiratory illnesses
• Prince Edward Island: Covid-19
• Quebec: COVID-19
• Government of Saskatchewan: Travel Information
• Government of Yukon: Borders and travel: COVID-19

International Travel

For international travel advice and advisories, see  Government of Canada: Travel outside Canada .

Testing before international travel

International travellers should plan ahead for the travel requirements of their destination and for returning home. Follow the entry requirements of the country you are travelling to. Check to find out if you can enter the country and if there are any vaccination, testing, quarantine, or other requirements. Routine testing of people without symptoms is not performed in B.C., including for travel purposes. For information on travel and testing for travel, see: 

• BC Centre for Disease Control: Travel
• BC Centre for Disease Control: Where to get a COVID-19 test in BC

Entering Canada

All COVID-19 border requirements have ended for travellers entering Canada by land, air or sea

Requirements change often. Check before you travel. Visit  Government of Canada: COVID-19: Travel, testing and borders  for the most up-to-date information.

For more information about returning to Canada after travel, visit:

Find more information about COVID-19 and how to protect yourself, your family and your community, see  Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) .

The information provided in the Travel and COVID-19 Health Feature was adapted from the  BC Centre for Disease Control: Travel ,  BC Centre for Disease Control: COVID-19 (Novel Coronavirus) , Province of British Columbia: COVID-19 guidance in B.C.  and  Government of Canada: COVID-19: Travel, testing and borders  pages accessed May 2024.

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Travel Advisory: Limited exceptions to border measures in British Columbia

From: Canada Border Services Agency

News release

The Canada Border Services Agency would like to remind travellers that border measures remain in place for travellers entering or returning to Canada and that they should get informed and understand their obligations as they make their travel plans.

December 22, 2021             Vancouver, British Columbia           Canada Border Services Agency

As of December 21, unless specifically exempted, all travellers must take a pre-entry COVID-19 molecular test before arriving in Canada, regardless of how long they were away .

• Tests taken in-Canada will no longer be accepted. In other words, the pre-entry test must be performed in a country other than Canada within 72 hours of arrival at the land border or within 72 hours of a scheduled flight departure.
• Travellers must either have a negative pre-entry COVID-19 molecular test result taken no more than 72 hours before arriving in Canada or a previous positive test result taken between 14 and 180 days before departure to Canada.
• Antigen tests, often called “rapid tests” are not accepted.

The Government of Canada continues to advise all Canadians to  avoid non-essential travel  outside of Canada at this time. Now is not the time to travel.

In British Columbia:

Given the ongoing situation in British Columbia, certain fully vaccinated B.C. residents will not have to take a pre-entry COVID-19 molecular test before coming back to Canada. This refers to residents:

• who must travel to the U.S. by land to access or purchase goods or services, and
• who are absent from Canada for no more than 24 hours.

The exemption also applies to unvaccinated children under 12 years of age entering with one of their fully vaccinated parents, step-parents, guardians or tutors and a person with a contraindication to vaccination.

Travellers should ensure they are only within the U.S. for the required period to access or purchase goods and services and return to Canada as soon as possible, without any unnecessary stops. Those who attend social visits, events or functions would therefore not be exempt from the pre-arrival testing requirement. Travellers should also continue to follow all local, provincial/territorial and public health guidance including masking in public, and maintaining social distancing.

All travellers must continue to submit their mandatory information in ArriveCAN .

Those who cross the border to ensure that essential services and economic supply chains continue, including truck drivers, remain exempted from the pre-entry test, quarantine and in-Canada test, but must continue to submit their mandatory information in ArriveCAN before arriving in Canada.

The Government of Canada understands the significant damage and upheaval that has been caused by the flooding situation in B.C. Should a border services officer determine that the traveller entered the U.S. and does not meet the exemption requirements upon their return to Canada, travellers will be referred to Public Health Agency of Canada officials who will assess next steps and determine the appropriate public health measures the traveller must follow.

Travellers should check if they are  eligible to enter Canada  and meet all  entry requirements  before heading to the border.

Related products

• Government of Canada announces additional measures to contain the spread of the Omicron variant

Associated links

• Government of Canada - Travel Advice and Advisories
• Find out if you can enter Canada - Travel restrictions in Canada
• Fully vaccinated travellers entering Canada during COVID-19

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To help keep communities safe and protect British Columbia’s health-care system from COVID-19, the Province has authorized site-specific road checks on travel corridors between regions to help enforce the non-essential travel restrictions that were announced on April 23, 2021.

On the advice of B.C.’s provincial health officer (PHO), Mike Farnworth, Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General, issued an Emergency Program Act order to prohibit non-essential travel between three regional zones in the province. The regional zones are:

• Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley (Fraser Health and Coastal Health regions);
• Vancouver Island (Island Health region); and
• Northern/Interior (Interior Health and Northern Health regions).

During the first weekend of the new travel restrictions, BC Ferries vehicle traffic was down more than 25% fleet-wide, and passenger traffic down more than 30%, compared to the weekend before. Resort communities and accommodation businesses have contacted the Province to note significant declines in out-of-region visitors and bookings, and BC Parks has reported more than 5,000 cancellations in the past few weeks. Building off this success in limiting non-essential travel, the province will authorize site-specific, clearly marked police road checks to further curb recreational travel.

The road checks may be put in place at any time until the order is lifted at 12:01 a.m. on May 25, 2021, (after the May long weekend). The road checks may be set up on highway corridors that connect different regions of the province to remind travellers of the order.

“These restrictions on non-essential travel are saving lives, it’s in the best interest of all British Columbians to follow them, and I know most are given the significant drop we’ve seen in out-of-region travel,” Farnworth said. “But it is also important that we get enforcement right, and consider concerns raised by the public and incorporate the feedback received from racialized communities. I want to be clear that the intent of this order is not punishment, but rather education around non-essential travel prevention to protect us all from the spread of COVID-19. My hope is that every British Columbian realizes the tremendous progress we can make if we stay close to home, and we can give the heroes in our health-care system a fighting chance at putting the current spike in cases behind us.”

When stopped at a road check restricting non-essential travel, police will only have the authority to request:

• a driver’s name, address and driver’s license
• any available documentation regarding driver’s name and address (for example, secondary identification that confirms a driver’s residential address if recently moved)
• the purpose of the driver’s travel (documentation regarding travel is not required)

Police cannot engage in arbitrary vehicle or street checks. Site-specific enforcement measures will be informed by ongoing discussions with stakeholders on limiting the impacts to the public and racialized communities. If police have reasonable grounds to believe that a person has travelled for a non-essential purpose, they can direct the traveller to turn around and leave the region. These measures will be limited to site-specific and authorized police operations on travel corridors between regions.

The goal of these road checks is education and further discouraging people from travelling for non-essential reasons. If compliance measures are deemed necessary by police, fines can be handed out. At the discretion of police, a contravention of this Emergency Program Act travel order may be subject to a $575 fine.

The RCMP will deploy a trained, dedicated team to manage and enforce road check locations, and ensure interactions are in line with the intent of the order and all existing police policy and police standards.

While the travel order puts legal limits only on travel between regional zones, the PHO’s guidance remains unchanged throughout B.C.: everyone should continue to stay within their local community – essential travel only.

Learn More:

For more information about current COVID-19 travel restrictions, visit: www.gov.bc.ca/covidtravel

For information on BC Ferries measures to support this order, visit: www.bcferries.com/travel-advisories

For information on the latest PHO orders and guidance, non-medical issues like travel recommendations and how to manage social isolation, visit: www.gov.bc.ca/COVID-19

For more information and latest medical updates on COVID-19, follow the BC Centre for Disease Control on Twitter @CDCofBC or visit its website: http://www.bccdc.ca

For translations, visit:  http://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2021PSSG0031-000793#translations

A backgrounder follows.

Backgrounders

Facts about on non-essential travel limits in b.c..

This order applies to non-essential travel. It does not apply to:

• moving to a different principal residence or assisting a person to move for that purpose;
• carrying out a work-related purpose, including volunteer work;
• commercially transporting goods;
• receiving health-care services or social services or assisting someone to receive those services;
• attending court;
• complying with a court order;
• exercising parental responsibilities, including spending parenting time with a minor child;
• accessing child care;
• attending classes or receiving training through a post-secondary institution or school;
• responding to emergencies or critical incidents, including incidents that involve search and rescue operations;
• a psychological, behavioural or health condition, or
• a physical, cognitive or mental impairment;
• visiting by an essential visitor or a social visitor as provided in the guidance of the Ministry of Health set out in a document titled Ministry of Health - Overview of Visitors in Long-Term Care and Seniors’ Assisted Living that went into effect on April 1, 2021;
• attending a funeral service;
• travelling under the authority of a variance of an order issued by the provincial health officer under the Public Health Act if the variance was made before this order comes into force;
• travelling for the purpose of avoiding the risk of abuse or violence;
• travelling by residents of the local health area of Bella Coola Valley or Central Coast to Port Hardy to obtain essential goods and supplies;
• travelling by residents of the local health area of Hope to Chilliwack to obtain essential goods and supplies;
• travelling by residents of the Northern Health Authority region into the Nis×a’a Health Authority region;
• travelling by residents of the Nis×a’a Health Authority region into the Northern-Interior Health Authority region;
• returning to a person’s own principal residence.
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The B.C. Public Service acknowledges the territories of First Nations around B.C. and is grateful to carry out our work on these lands. We acknowledge the rights, interests, priorities, and concerns of all Indigenous Peoples - First Nations, Métis, and Inuit - respecting and acknowledging their distinct cultures, histories, rights, laws, and governments.

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News & Reviews News Wire British Columbia travel restrictions, fires lead to Rocky Mountaineer cancellations

British Columbia travel restrictions, fires lead to Rocky Mountaineer cancellations

| Last updated on February 3, 2024

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VANCOUVER, British Columbia — The government of British Columbia has announced new restrictions on non-essential travel because of wildfires in the province, leading to the cancellation of at least two scheduled trips of the Rocky Mountaineer luxury tour train.

The government order announced Saturday restricts people from staying in hotels for non-essential purposes in several communities, to make accommodations available for those evacuating the fires, as well as personnel providing emergency services. The order covers a half-dozen communities, including Kamloops, which provides overnight accommodations for two of the Rocky Mountaineer routes.

As a result, a notification on the Rocky Mountaineer website says the “First Passage to the West” trip scheduled to depart today from Banff/Lake Louise, Alberta, to Vancouver will not operate; neither will the Aug. 21 trip from Vancouver to Banff/Lake Louise.

Passengers scheduled to take part on those trips should call the company at numbers provided here ; those scheduled to travel in the next seven days should leave a voice mail if they are unable to get through. Passengers on trips departing after Aug. 27 should email [email protected] for more information.

Today’s scheduled “Journey Through the Clouds” departure from Jasper, Alberta, to Vancouverwas set to operate as scheduled, with alternate accommodations arranged. The company is working to arrange similar accommodations for future trips and will contact passengers as soon as possible.

Rocky Mountaineer also advises that travel may be slower in some areas because of heat-related speed restricts and that visibility of scenery and air quality may be affected because of the wildfires.

Reports indicate a fire in the Shushwap Lake area east of Kamloops has closed the CPKC main line and Trans-Canada Highway, while another southwest of Kamloops, near Boston Bar, B.C., is threatening the paired CPKC and Canadian National main lines through the Fraser River Canyon.

2 thoughts on “ British Columbia travel restrictions, fires lead to Rocky Mountaineer cancellations ”

Hopefully, this wildfire situation does not turn into anything worse than it already is.

Dr. Güntürk Üstün

A perfectly sound decision by the Rocky Mountaineer management.

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B.C. to lift most wildfire-related travel restrictions in southern Interior

Order to remain in west kelowna, however; people urged to avoid travel to lake country, shuswap areas.

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If the power or data on your device is low, you can get wildfire updates on  CBC Lite,  our low-bandwidth, text-only website.

A wildfire-related travel ban  to hotels or campgrounds in many communities in the southern Interior will be lifted at midnight, according to B.C.'s Minister of Emergency Management.

The order was implemented Saturday and restricted travel for the purpose of staying in temporary accommodations to Kelowna and West Kelowna, Kamloops, Oliver, Osoyoos, Penticton and Vernon.

It was designed to make space for the thousands of evacuees ordered out of their homes due to hundreds of wildfires burning around the province, as well as first responders and support staff.

However, non-essential travel to West Kelowna continues to be prohibited and people are being urged to stay away from the Lake Country and Shuswap areas.

At a Wednesday news conference, part of an official tour of wildfire-ravaged areas , B.C.'s Minister of Emergency Management Bowinn Ma said the order has had its intended effect of freeing up hotel rooms for those who needed it most.

"[We are] extremely grateful to the support of the tourism sector for their compassion and their understanding," she said. "We know that these kinds of travel orders have an effect on their work and their livelihoods."

• B.C. restricts travel in southern Interior as wildfires force 30,000 out of homes
• Kelowna tourism operator fled 2 wildfires in 8 years. He now fears for future of business

Ma said the province will continue to place evacuees in the accommodations that are now available, working with local governments and First Nations.

She said anyone planning on travelling in B.C., should avoid fire-affected communities and respect evacuation orders and alerts .

"Check DriveBC before you go, have an emergency kit and let compassion and common sense lead you."

The rescinding of the order comes as tourism operators  say their businesses have taken a nosedive, even in communities where the travel restrictions did not apply.

At the same news conference, B.C. Premier David Eby said the province was starting to look toward rebuilding and recovery, with "heroic" efforts by firefighters helping calm aggressive blazes.

"The work and the discussions and the efforts and partnership with the federal government, with First Nations and others on recovery has started already," he said.

Ma said the West Kelowna travel ban is set to stay in place until Sept. 4, but may be lifted earlier if conditions allow it.

With files from The Canadian Press

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