Quebec's New Suggestion: 2-Week Hotel Quarantines For Travellers — Paid By The Travellers

In a press conference on Thursday, Premier Legault reiterated his call for the federal government to ban non-essential international travel but also suggested an alternative: a mandatory two-week quarantine in a hotel for all travellers returning to Quebec from outside the country.

This quarantine, Legault said, would be supervised and paid for by the travellers, themselves.

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We have continued our discussions with the federal government.

François Legault

"I hear [that] Mr. Trudeau tells us that constitutionally it's not easy to ban flights," the premier said.

"The alternative that we're open to," he continued, is to have "all travellers go [...] into hotel rooms [...] that are supervised."

He suggested that the RCMP could do the supervising, possibly supported by the Sûreté du Québec.

He added that since so many hotel rooms are available, finding space shouldn't be a problem.

The suggestion follows Legault's public request on January 19 that the federal government move "rapidly" to forbid non-essential international flights.

"When we have people who come from abroad who met other people who were in international places, we multiply the chances to have [COVID-19] strains enter [Quebec]," he said at the time.

"I understand that Mr. Trudeau, like us, says that it's not ideal, but we're no longer in hypotheses. We must act."

Travellers returning to Canada from abroad must already undergo a two-week quarantine in their homes and verify their quarantine conditions through the ArriveCan app.