New Brunswick has decided to exempt all truck drivers from travel registration, official documents reveal. Last week, the government announced that anyone entering the province after Sept. 21 must register their travel through the New Brunswick Travel Registration Program.

The Atlantic Provinces Trucking Association (APTA) had said last Friday that New Brunswick’s latest Covid-19 restrictions for travelers would affect the trucking industry. This morning it was able to announce: “After careful consideration, the province of NB has decided to exempt all truck drivers from travel registration.”

“As we are in the fourth wave of the pandemic, it is imperative that we do what is needed to protect our residents while living with the reality that the virus is still with us,” Premier Blaine Higgs said in a news release last week.

Isolation requirements are also not being imposed on commercial drivers, APTA’s executive director Jean-Marc Picard said in an email on Monday. The provincial government had said that if proof of vaccination could not be provided, a traveler had to self-isolate for 14 days. The self-isolation could end after 10 days, upon receiving a negative Covid-19 test result.

Any individual or business that fails to follow the new regulations may be subject to fines ranging between $172.50 and $772.50, the news release said.

• This story has been updated to reflect that an initial requirement affecting truckers has been lifted.

By Leo Barros