Want to commend you for getting an airbnb for your father. See many still quarantining with family members or friends. Most are not quarantining in a basement with access to a bathroom and hopefully a kitchen or small makeshift kitchen to minimize any exposure from opening a door. This is unfortunately why we have community spread of the delta variant. The government finally updated the quarantine rules which was still allowing people to share a bathroom with non-travelers relatively recently. The last wave and new variants have finally resulted in some changes.
Visitor declining to stay at a government-authorized hotel
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Want to commend you for getting an airbnb for your father. See many still quarantining with family members or friends. Most are not quarantining in a basement with access to a bathroom and hopefully a kitchen or small makeshift kitchen to minimize any exposure from opening a door. This is unfortunately why we have community spread of the delta variant. The government finally updated the quarantine rules which was still allowing people to share a bathroom with non-travelers relatively recently. The last wave and new variants have finally resulted in some changes.
I do not plan on leaving my home while she is here and will also get tested alongside her. It will be heartbreaking to her and myself if she has to spend 2 weeks alone in a country she is not familiar with, especially since we have been trying to reunite for the past 18 months. This is just my opinion, which I am allowed to have, but I don't need the government telling me who can or can't be in my home. I take responsibility for myself and as long as I'm not doing activities to put others in harms way, they should leave me alone.
As OP posted earlier, there is a new report to the government stating that the 3 night mandatory hotel detention (yes I called it that) is not working, is flawed, and should be scrapped.
There are many more covid cases from domestic travel compared to international travel. I personally know 2 people who tested positive after a domestic flight but none international.
https://globalnews.ca/news/7848898/domestic-flights-covid-cases-canada/
Some may argue, "just don't travel now, wait until the pandemic is over". Until they have been apart from their loved one for over 18 months, they will not understand.
I will not be advising my GF to refuse quarantine, but it does not hurt for her to ask the border agent if she can carry on to Edmonton. There have been many cases where the border agent has not forced the hotel stay, it's really subjective.
She definitely will not be able to fly directly to Edmonton. If the government is actually enforcing quarantine rules she won't be able to remain with you either especially especially since you will likely not even try to remain 2m apart. You may feel that it is your right to have who you want in your home but Canada can also refuse entry for your gf if she isn't following the quarantine guidelines. Allowing people to quarantine with non-travelers leads to more people getting infected and creating preventable covid cases which is why the rule is in place. I empathize but know that people aren't following proper quarantine protocols and I hope the government is finally getting better at verifying quarantine plans and locations which I hear they are although not sure how consistent by region.
Thanks a lot, @Sledge and @canuck78 , for your sensible and level-headed responses! The fact that my father-in-law is NOT a Canadian citizen or PR is exactly what puzzles me as far as hotel quarantine and caused me to write the post in hopes people will share similar experience. You're absolutely right that quarantine at home will be safer than at the hotel, I've also read stories that the way the hotel quarantine protocols are handled/followed is a mess.
Is your girlfriend a Canadian citizen or PR?
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Unfortunately many will not go straight to a quarantine location without non-travellers so it is easier to require hotel quarantine to hope and catch some of the already positive cases before going to their quarantine locations. Hopefully enforcement if correct quarantine protocols are also being enforced more strongly. As you can see from @Sledge he is attempting to have his gf skip her hotel quarantine and fly to Edmonton and then quarantine with him. The quarantine requirements specified by the government are not being followed by many and it is not only by travellers going to directly to a quarantine location where they will remain quarantined from non-travellers for 14 days.
She is neither at the moment. I am not trying circumvent the rules, but when you hear horror stories of sexual assault, people forced to share rooms, and having to be in contact with way more people than if you went straight to the final quarantine location, it just seems like a giant mess. Like I said earlier, I am fully willing to quarantine with her, get tested, all of it. I am an adult, can make my own decisions and I am making an informed decision by putting myself in "harms way" as long as I'm not putting anyone else in harm's way.
As your links to recent news articles state, the government science panel has recommended the mandatory hotel quarantine be scrapped and offered alternative measures they believe would be safer for everyone, considering covid incubation periods and public compliance.
Not heard stories of strangers being forced to stay in a room together. If anything friends have been trying to share rooms. Although very unfortunate I believe there has only been one incidence of sexual assault in a quarantine hotel at the beginning. This is unfortunately a risk anywhere in the world including in your apartment. The science recommendation made their recommendations without knowledge of the delta variant. They called for a change in the system. That could mean better quarantine programs. You choosing to put yourself in harms way is an issuebecause if that is acceptable for you it is acceptable for everyone and then Canada can accumulate all these extra cases of covid that were easily preventable. Every case is a potential hospitalization and every extra case in a region puts the region at risk of various limitations or even lockdowns. Your personal move does not just affect you which is why the opportunity to remain in a home with an asymptomatic traveller, still not staying in the same room, has been removed from the quarantine guidelines.