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Southern Alberta residents relieved that rules on ArriveCan app are relaxed

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An announcement this week that travellers who can't access the Canadian government's ArriveCan app -- or simply forget to fill it out – will start to receive some leeway comes as a relief to many residents living in southern Alberta.

Terry Schmitke, who lives on a farm in the Cardston area, took a quick trip down to the states last month, but when she returned to the Canadian border, she said was surprised to learn that she’d had to quarantine.

“I was just shocked,” Schmitke said with a chuckle. “On Nov. 30, I drove to Babb, Montana to pick up a parcel that had been there since February 2020. It took all of five minutes to get my parcel. I immediately turned around and drove back to Carway Border Crossing.”

The trip from Carway Border Crossing to Babb, Mt. is only a 14 minute drive.

When she returned not even an hour later, Schmitke was unaware that she needed to check in on the federal government's ArriveCan app to get back into Canada.

When she arrived at Carway, Canadian border officials told Schmitke she'd have to complete a mandatory 14-day quarantine because she didn't have the app.

“I tried to present my vaccination certificate along with my passport (and) the customs officer told me he wasn't allowed to touch or even look at my certificate of double vaccination and asked if I had the ArriveCan app. I had no idea what he was even talking about,” Schmitke told CTV News.

Schmitke is currently on day nine of her 14-day quarantine, but said she isn't the only one who's been through this experience.

The federal government has received hundreds of complaints about the policy, which resulted in people being ordered to quarantine for 14 days.

The federal government says people arriving in Canada can now verbally give their travel details at the border if they don't have the app. 

“This is a new system that we're implementing that may take some time to ramp up, but were all in this together,” said Omar Alghabra, Minister of Transport of Canada.

The new instructions will allow border officials to collect information about where the traveller has been, the purpose of their trip, their contact information, vaccination information, pre-travel COVID-19 test results, and their quarantine plan once they are in Canada.

As of Wednesday, Schmitke says she has not heard from anyone about ending her quarantine early as a result of the new announcement. She says all she can do now is wait.

CTV News reached out to the federal government to clarify whether the quarantine rule still applies for those stopped at the border without the ArriveCan app, but have not heard back.

- With files from The Canadian Press

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