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The Canadian federal government has been working on developing an internationally recognized vaccine passport, intending to have it ready for the public sometime this fall.
Today, the Canadian government revealed the plan for the national vaccine passport that Canadians can use to travel domestically and abroad.
Canada Announces Plans For Vaccine Passport
Most people who were vaccinated in Canada already have a vaccine passport issued by their province or territory, such as the case for Ontario and Quebec.
Now, Canada's federal government and the ten provinces have agreed on a standard Covid-19 electronic vaccination passport that can be used for domestic and foreign travel.
Rather than creating a federal database for health information, the government is going to leave that with the provinces.
Each province will be responsible for issuing a standardized pan-Canadian passport that Canadians can use to travel domestically and abroad.
Each of the province's vaccine passports will have a common look and feel, containing the passport holders' name and date of birth, the vaccines they have received, and a QR code for scanning.
“Provinces and territories are issuing this proof as they hold all the information. The government of Canada has agreed there was limited value in creating a national vaccination database and duplicating what provincial and territorial authorities are doing well” said an official.
The document will have a federal Canadian identifying mark and meet major international smart health card standards. In addition, they will have verification measures to prevent fraud and can also be used with ArriveCAN when returning from other countries.
The new vaccine passport is intended to give border officers more confidence when verifying proof of vaccination, as they won't have to sift through a mix of vaccine passports at provincial levels.
“Many (countries) have said they want to see a digital … verifiable proof of vaccination, which is what we're delivering,” said one official.
The federal government has promised to promote this system internationally so that border agencies, organizations, and businesses worldwide will be able to recognize the passports as Canadian documents because of the placement of the ‘Canada' word-mark in the upper-right hand corner.
Federal officials are talking to nations that are popular with Canadian travelers to brief them about the document.
Officials said more information on the vaccine passport will soon be available on the government of Canada website.
The passport is already available to Canadians whose provinces and territories have issued vaccine credentials, including Newfoundland and Labrador, Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, Nunavut, Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan, and Yukon. The remaining provinces will issue theirs before the busy holiday travel season.
Canadians will need to show proof of vaccination to board domestic transport as the federal vaccine mandate for domestic air and rail travel comes into effect on October 30th.
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This article originally appeared on TravelOffPath.com
Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.
Jessie
Saturday 23rd of October 2021
What if a Canadian has a vaccine from another country like the US? Can I still get this in Canada?
kbob
Saturday 23rd of October 2021
Is there anyplace that hasn't totally mad that a canadian can seek political asylum?
garrytravel
Friday 22nd of October 2021
One pass for restaurants, one pass for travel. Proud Canadians for their efficient overlord government. How about a kiddie pass for toddlers?
Christian
Friday 22nd of October 2021
Canada is being Australized.
Stephan
Friday 22nd of October 2021
Anti-Vaxxers are the reason this pandemic never ends. At the same time they complain about measures being implemented, although they are the reason why they are implemented. Would they be intelligent enough not to trust the "fake news" shouters instead of real scientists we would have been able to end all these measures and live our free lives again. But because of those, who have all studied medicine and know everything better than scientists of course, we will have to live with these measures they call "dictatorship" for a very long time. They don't know what dictatorship means, because under a government like in China they would all end up in jail for all the nonsense they are proclaiming. Here they can still freely express their non-science-based opinion.
As long as the virus is spreading, I will be more than happy to travel to smart countries like Canada, which keeps all the idiots out and makes me feel safe. So at my opinion - very good policy. Not dictatorship but taking responsibility for public health.