Travel restrictions will cost half a million jobs this year alone: Statistics Canada

Statistics Canada just released some alarming data showing that the continued travel restrictions in place in Canada (among the strictest in the world), will cost the country approximately 550,000 jobs this year and $37B in lost productivity.

This includes the continued and prolonged closure of the US-Canada land border to all but what is considered essential travel, and the "bubble" in the Atlantic provinces, requiring all Canadian travelers from outside of the region to undergo 14 days quarantine upon arriving.

"The failure to approve rapid testing for safe travel and tourism will cost Canada a gobsmacking half-million jobs. Astonishing damage," says the original tweet.

The tweets that follow the original tweet quoted above include a lot of back and forth by people with different viewpoints:

One person mentions that the tourism industry, unlike, for example, the airline industry, has been thrown under the bus by the Canadian government and deserves help:

The Canadian government recently introduced new measures to allow for the entry into Canada of certain people who are considered exceptions to the rule, mainly on compassionate or academic grounds. But on the other hand, the measures against general entry to Canada for things like tourism are now tighter than ever.