Today, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a national proof of vaccination for Canadians which will be available by late November or early December. He says all provinces and territories have confirmed that they will be moving forward with a standardized national Proof of Vaccination. BC has not yet put in place the national standard. The standardized document will include the passport-holder’s name and date of birth, information on the vaccines they have received – which types, how many doses, and when they were administered, as well as a QR code. The proof of vaccination will have a common look and feel across the country, including a ‘Canada’ wordmark in the top corner.
SAMPLE IMAGE HERE:
“The Surrey Board of Trade has always said that we support a centralized, Canada-wide approach to COVID-19 proof-of immunization that could be easily used to confirm vaccination status for international and domestic use. Without inter-provincial harmonization, Canada has risked a piecemeal approach, making life more difficult and unpredictable for individuals and employers during an already uncertain time. Many of our businesses do business across Canada, trading goods and travelling across the country for business-related reasons,” said Anita Huberman, President & CEO, Surrey Board of Trade.
“We expect that there will be many questions by employers and employees along with technology education that will be required. Hopefully these questions and the rollout will be seamless as we are already delayed in a national approach due to the federal election.”
“Questions remain though about whether other countries will accept the proof of vaccination? Why can’t an international approach to vaccine passports be implemented? Will these vaccine passports mitigate/prevent fraud? As provinces are responsible for issuing a standardized pan-Canadian proof of vaccination, how soon will the whole country be synchronized? Will capacity restrictions be lifted fully for all businesses across Canada?”
The federal government said it will promote this system internationally, so that border agencies, organizations, and businesses across the globe will be able to recognize and rely on these proof of vaccinations as Canadian documents because of the placement of a “Canada” word-mark in the upper-right-hand corner.
The proof of vaccinations will have verification measures and security features that will prevent tampering and forgeries, according to the government. Foreign border officials can either manually read the information on the passport, or scan the QR code with whichever digital validation technology they are using.
MORE INFORMATION: https://www.canada.ca/en/ public-health/services/ diseases/coronavirus-disease- covid-19/vaccines/life-after- vaccination/vaccine-proof.html
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