There won’t be any large cruises in Canada this year, as the Canadian government extended its ban on cruise operations through February 2022.
The extended ban complicates cruise operators’ efforts to restart sailings in North America this year, prolonging their hiatus since voyages came to a halt in March 2020 due to coronavirus outbreaks on ships. The ban had been scheduled to expire later this month.
The Canadian measure applies to cruise vessels carrying 100 or more people and prohibits passenger vessels carrying more than 12 people from entering Arctic coastal waters, including Nunatsiavut, Nunavik and the Labrador Coast, Canadian Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said. Adventure-seeking pleasure craft are also prohibited from entering Arctic waters, he added.
“Temporary prohibitions to cruise vessels and pleasure craft are essential to continue to protect the most vulnerable among our communities and avoid overwhelming our health-care systems,” Alghabra said. “This is the right and responsible thing to do.”
Cruise sailings from U.S. regions such as New England and Alaska typically have stops in Canada. Canadian ports reported visits from more than 1 million cruise passengers in 2019, primarily to Vancouver and ports in Canada’s Maritime Provinces.
An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com,
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