Stop with the foot-dragging on vaccine passports

Back in the middle of March the European Union was hard at work framing a certificate that would facilitate free, safe movement within the EU. In other words, vaccine passports for post-pandemic travel. By early May, the EU had pushed from conceptualization into the pilot phase of its project.

The certificate won the approval of the European Parliament on Wednesday, with July 1 set as the date when the COVID-19 passport would be made available to all EU citizens and residents. In other words, steady progress was made.

There was already a long list of individual countries that had started to issue certificates of their own. See Denmark, Germany, Greece, Poland and a host of others. Spain opened its borders to fully vaccinated travellers a week ago. Switzerland announced this week that it will start distributing a certificate in line with the EU.

The EU certificate, with a QR code that can be stored digitally or held in paper form, provides proof of vaccination, or a negative test or if the bearer has recovered from the virus. In response to privacy concerns, the European Commission said it has built a gateway that will verify signatures, but that personal data will not travel through this portal.

Little wonder that European Travel and Tourism has launched a “Destination Summer” campaign, pushing the idea that it’s “time to reconnect Europe.”

No one is advocating a lack of caution this side of the pond. But the government’s own testing and screening expert advisory panel was clear late last month when it urged the government to get moving.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has insisted he’s on it. Such passports are “naturally to be expected,” he said in April. “How we actually roll that out in alignment with partners and allies around the world is something that we’re working on right now.”

One could have reasonably expected specifics weeks ago. Certainly before the health minister announced on Wednesday that allowing fully vaccinated Canadian travellers to skip hotel quarantine requirements upon returning home was on the agenda, to be activated as early as July.

How does a passenger prove full vaccination? By hoping that an easily reproduceable Ontario Ministry of Health vaccine confirmation spat out by your local pharmacy will work? Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc could only offer that some sort of vaccine passport was in development and that some of interim system would have to be put in place until the passports go live.

No wonder Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister is drawing so much notice for the immunization cards — digital or non — available to fully vaccinated Manitobans. No more self-isolation after returning to Brandon after travelling to Saskatoon. The premier, who has been quite inventive in encouraging vaccinations — cash! scholarships! — indicated it would be great to extend the same benefits to residents of other provinces, if only they would issue their own immunization cards. Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott said such a provincial document would be really important for travel purposes. The time stamp on that comment: December.

Trudeau has said he wants Canada to come roaring back once this pandemic is behind us, reliably contained. Ending travel restrictions for non-essential movement to and from the U.S. is up next with border restrictions set to expire as early as June 21.

Lifting those restrictions will be a huge boost to the collective psyche. So too would the feeling of flashing a QR code testifying to one’s double-dose status. Perhaps the prime minister can take some time at the G7 meeting this weekend to seek tips on how, all these months later, to make that happen.