Ontario is calling on Ottawa to do mandatory testing of all international travellers as well as a temporary ban on flights coming from countries where new COVID variants are being detected including Brazil and Portugal.

“We aren’t the first country to require this and we won’t be the last, so again, I can’t figure out for the life of me, why we aren’t testing every single person who comes through this airport and the land crossings as well,” said Ford during a stop at Toronto’s Pearson Airport.

Ford says 6,800 international travellers were tested as part of a pilot at Toronto’s Pearson Airport earlier this month, which led to 146 cases. Prior to Ford’s announcement, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said new travel measures would be announced soon.

Meantime, on the issue of vaccines, Premier Ford says he’ll be speaking with the Prime Minister ‘very shortly’ about getting vaccines to Ontario.

“We need the Prime Minister and the federal government to be fighting for vaccines for Canada, that’s the single number one job right now.”

Ford is repeating his push for cooperation from the US government to get Pfizer vaccines from a plant in Michigan.

And Health Minister Christine Elliott says if the European Union restricts exports of vaccines, it’s clearly not great news.

“Well, it will put us in a very difficult circumstance of course, but it’s something that we need to make sure that we stand up for Canada, other countries are pressing for access for their vaccines, we need to do that as well.”