Thought of the Day - October 26 2021 - Canada's Vaccine Passport Standard

Following hot on the heels of the US border news ( Thought of the Day - October 18 2021 - Borderline News ), as announced last Thursday, Canada will not have a national vaccine passport. Instead, we will have a national standard for a COVID Vaccine Passport. In short, your province needs to issue a passport that shows your name, date of birth, and COVID-19 vaccine history — including which doses you got, and when you got them.

All Provinces will be adopting this new standard, indeed compatible passports have already been issued in Saskatchewan, Ontario, Québec, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, as well as all three territories - you can tell, as they include a Canada logo on the top right corner.

As is current practice across much of the country, this image can then be captured on a digital device or you can print it. I have seen people print it, credit-card sized, and then laminate it in order to fit in your wallet - highly recommended for the inevitable time your phone dies - particularly as this is now looking like this will not just be a short-term requirement.

The proof of vaccination system utilizes the newly approved US SMART Health Card standard, pioneered by the Boston Children's Hospital - basically, a tamper-proof QR code, and a standard API to read the information it contains. Of course, as it does not contain any identifying information other than your name and date of birth, you still need to have corresponding picture identification for most applications.

As of November 30, Canadians will need to use the proof of vaccination system both within Canada and for international travel, officials said.

As far as the remaining five provinces are concerned, things are not quite as rosy as Ottawa paints.

For example the B.C. Vaccine Card is not compatible with the newly announced standard. British Columbians will now need to have both a federal vaccine passport and BC Vaccine Card - one to eat at a restaurant in BC and the other to travel by airplane in Canada. Premier John Horgan acknowledged the rollout of the federal vaccine passport will lead to “confusion” across BC. B.C.'s Ministry of Health said in a statement that the province will issue the new government of Canada "proof of vaccination cards" as of October 30, ahead of the federal compliance date.

“We are hopefully going to clarify issues in the days ahead,” Horgan said "I know the B.C. card will be acceptable for a period of time. It does create confusion for people anxious to travel.”

Sigh, just another system that BC needs to launch in a hurry ( Thought of the Day - March 10 - BC Vaccine Registration Underway ).

Cheers

Cliff