Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said Canada might require international travellers to prove they were vaccinated against COVID-19 before they can gain entrance into the country.
While speaking at a recent news conference, Trudeau said the government would base its policy on whether it will need travellers to provide a vaccine certification with its international partners.
He said Canada was discussing the issue with its European partners, but it’s up to every country to figure out what requirements they expec from incoming travellers.
He said: “We are looking very carefully at it, hoping to align with allied countries.”
Trudeau revealed Canadians could start travelling outside the country again by summer.
The Leader of Bloc Québécois, Yves-François Blanchet, said he supports the notion of a vaccine passport for international travel.
While talking to a news conference, Blanchet said: “We should recognize the jurisdiction of every country or territory to define what is a safe vaccination or not. And then allow the circulation of people who carry proof of that.”
He revealed that from the look of things, United States doesn’t seem to be willing to require international travellers to tender a proof of vaccination, but that could change as many of United States’ partners are considering adopting this policy.
Trudeau said Canada might need American visitors to establish they were vaccinated against COVID-19 before coming to Canada irrespective of whether the United States will require Canadians to show proof or not.
He said: “Our responsibility is to do everything necessary to protect Canadians, and we are going to do that, even if there isn’t automatically symmetry with other countries.”
A recent Ipsos survey for the World Economic Forum discovers that around 75 per cent of adults across 28 countries hold the view that COVID-19 vaccine passports should be needed by travellers to enter their country and that would be highly effective in making travel and large events safe.
The survey was carried out online among more than 21,000 adults, 1,000 of which responded from Canada, between March 26 and April 9, and the survey cannot be given a margin of error as web polls are not considered random samples.
The survey discovered that Canada has a strong support for using vaccine passports for travellers and large events, but Canadians are doubtful about the passports’ role in everyday life.
According to the survey, sixty-one percent of Canadians want only people who have been vaccinated to be given allowance to do things with larger groups of people, such as public transit, flying, or attending cultural and sports events.
Seventy-eight percent however agree that every traveller entering Canada should be mandated to have a vaccine passport.
