Following news last week that the U.S. was reopening its land border with Canada to fully vaccinated travellers, pressure has increased on Ottawa to up its own game in facilitating the return to travel.
In AUG, Open Jaw reported that the federal government was working on a ‘vaccine passport’ to be ready sometime ‘this fall’ for Canadians to use for international travel. And while other phases of a return to travel, like eliminating quarantines for fully vaccinated arrivals, have proceeded, what’s arguably one of the final hurdles to the return to post-pandemic travel - a vaccine passport - has not yet been introduced.
Over the weekend, CBC’s Rosemary Barton interviewed Public Safety Minister Bill Blair about the reopening of the U.S. land border to fully vaccinated Canadians. And she also pinned him down about vaccine passports.
Blair affirmed that the border reopening with the U.S. was going to result in “pretty significant volume increases” in both directions crossing the border and acknowledged that the border crossing process has gotten more complicated, with CBSA “asking a lot of health related questions.”
He added, “With the advent of new technologies we’ve been able to speed up those processes."
And Blair affirmed, "We'll be ready."
That led quickly to the question of vaccine passports: digital certificates that quickly, easily, and credibly prove the vaccination status of the traveller when they present themselves at an international border.
When Open Jaw first reported on the federal government’s vaccine passport development, we cited two of its biggest challenges: the technology; and the need to coordinate with all provinces and territories, since it’s those jurisdictions, not Ottawa, which store and keep secure Canadians’ health data.
“The technology issues have been addressed, and we’re getting the job done now,” Blair told CBC, but admitted there’s “still some more work to do” with the provinces.
The minister did confirm that all the provinces appreciated the need for vaccine passports, and that they were all onboard with their implementation.
Nonetheless, Blair hinted that Canadians in different provinces may have access to vaccine passports at different times. But he did add that the federal government was “hoping to have a coordinated” rollout for all Canadians simultaneously.
“I’m hopeful that by the end of OCT, we should be able to announce real progress.”
