Work needed to align B.C’s proof of vaccination with federal travel program

British Columbia is going to work with the federal government to align the provincial proof of vaccine program with a new program intended to allow safe travel outside the country.

Premier John Horgan said B.C. was one of the first provinces to roll out a vaccine passport to allow citizens to attend local events and non-essential services, but this new federal program has a much broader scope.

“[B.C.’s] card simply says that you have two doses of an approved vaccine, and you’re also required to show proof of identification, and that can be a variety of different things,” said Horgan.

“The federal government’s test is much higher for international travel, and we said so at the time that we implemented our immunization card that, at the point where the borders are opened, particularly of course to the south of us, and those who want to travel internationally are going to require some other form of identification distributed and approved by the federal government.

“That decision has been made, those cards have now been developed and they involve not just being immunized but what vaccine did you receive, what date, what batch number did that vaccine come from? All of that information is held by the Ministry of Health privately and confidentially, but now that is going to be required to be part of the federal immunization card or passport.”

The premier added that B.C. wanted to act proactively to get people vaccinated and open up non-essential services in a safe way, which led to the formation of the provincial vaccine card.

Horgan said British Columbians with no plans to travel in the near future don’t have to worry about a new document, and those who do plan to travel, or use federal transportation, will need a second document. He notes that work will be done to bring those two together into one document.

Though he could not provide a timeline for this work as of yet, Horgan did say he was confident that with this, like other COVID responses, there would be collaboration between the two orders of government to address this issue.

Horgan said it would have been nice to have a nationwide form of the proof of vaccination ready earlier, but noted that a lot of moving pieces, such as types of vaccines like Astra Zeneca or mixed-doses that were not recognized in other countries but administered to Canadians, had to be taken into consideration before the program could be finalized.

He also stated that Ottawa has committed to funding the passports and working with the provinces in distributing them, and does not believe there will be any impact on B.C.’s bottom line or on its taxpayers.