Johanna Jainchill
Just as things started to genuinely look up for the cruise industry -- masks are coming off, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings just recorded the lowest number of pre-embarkation Covid-19 cases since last summer and full fleets are soon to be sailing -- Canada dropped another potential bomb.
And it is one that would likely give a boost to a proposal from Alaskan lawmakers to permanently enable cruise ships to skip Canada while sailing between the Lower 48 and Alaska.
Canada's plan to reopen its ports to cruise ships has not changed since its ban lifted last November. But the Canadian government last week unrolled a new set of guidelines that require a 100% vaccination rate for all vessels stopping at its ports.
Canada's guidelines create a higher vaccination standard for cruise passengers than the CDC, which enables ships to voluntarily follow its Covid guidelines and puts participating ships into tiers based on their crew and passenger vaccination levels: "highly vaccinated," reaching the 95% threshold; "standard of excellence," 95% both vaccinated and boosted; and "not highly vaccinated," for ships under 95%.
The new Canadian guidelines would potentially complicate the 2022 Alaska cruise season. Many itineraries rely on calls in Victoria or Vancouver to satisfy the Passenger Vessel Services Act (PVSA), a U.S. regulation that requires foreign-flagged ships to stop at an international port on cruises departing from the U.S.
Last year, Canada's cruise ban put Alaska's cruise season on the ropes. But Congress unanimously passed legislation introduced by the Alaska delegation to give cruise ships a PVSA exemption until the Canada ban ended.
Even as cruising resumed last summer, however, Alaska lawmakers were not content with Canada's border policies having that much impact on the state's economy. Sen. Lisa Murkowski and congressman Don Young both said in September that a permanent exemption was needed from the PVSA.
"We cannot allow such a vital portion of our economy to be held hostage by a foreign country, in this case, Canada," Young wrote in an op-ed.
Now the issue is back.
John Heald, Carnival Cruise Line's brand ambassador and senior cruise director, took to Facebook last week to say that while details are still being worked out for Alaska cruises, Canada's regulations are a sticking point.
"The issue at the moment is still about resolving Canadian government requirements," he wrote. "If that cannot be worked out promptly, the industry will seek to have government regulations suspended like what took place last year, and our itineraries will bypass Canada altogether."
Even before the news about Canada's vaccination policy, the Alaska delegation two weeks ago introduced legislation to allow cruise ships to skip their legally required stops in Canada through February 2023.
"Alaska's economy and our communities should not be at the mercy of decisions made by the Canadian government, and I will do whatever is needed to ensure Alaskans can prosper," said Murkowski.
The news about Canada's vaccine requirement, however, may lead the Alaska's delegation to go back to what it said it would do in September, and attempt to make the PVSA exemption permanent.