The Canadian Travel and Tourism Roundtable welcomes the federal government’s announcement that Canada will introduce a standardized proof of vaccination for domestic and international travel in the coming months. Today’s announcement is a critical step forward in establishing vaccine certificate interoperability between Canada and international destinations, and certainty for the travel and tourism industry.
Canadians, domestic travellers, and international visitors alike require consistency regarding where they can go, what they can do, and the required documentation they need to participate in public activities. One clear system will help to facilitate travel and border openings around the world.
The Roundtable encourages the government to continue working with provinces to create a seamless and consistent vaccine certification system and to ensure that each province and territory that has yet to make their vaccine certification program compatible across the country work quickly to standardize their proof of vaccination with the federal government’s certification for domestic and international travel.
Further, the Roundtable continues to advocate for the use of science-based measures to remove obstacles to travel, including the removal of cost-prohibitive, pre-departure PCR tests for fully vaccinated travellers and blanket travel advisories. In addition, the Roundtable is calling for an amendment to the discriminatory child policy for travelling of minors which effectively requires them to quarantine from school or daycare for two weeks. These policies were intended to be temporary and are counter to the federal government’s COVID-19 Testing and Screening Expert Advisory Panel Report and stifle the re-building of the travel and tourism sector across this country which the government recognizes has been the hardest hit.
Travel is now one of the safest activities in Canada as the transportation sector has become one of the few sectors requiring fully vaccinated employees and customers. Current policies must consider improvements made in managing the pandemic through robust health and safety protocols, as well as the fully vaccinated population in Canada and around the world.
