Trudeau: Summer Travel May Be a Go, Ottawa Working on Vaccine Passports

May 4, 2021 Jim Byers

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canadians may be able to travel this summer. He also said Canada is working with its allies on a vaccine passport.

Speaking to the media in Ottawa on Tuesday, Trudeau said the Canadian government is working with allies, especially those in Europe, on such passports or certificates.

“We are all hopeful we’ll be able to get back to normal in the coming months, and start travelling again. But the reality is we’re not there yet. We need to get more and more people vaccinate across this country and bring the numbers down,” he said. “Now is not the time to travel.”

“However, we also know that as people start to travel again, perhaps this summer if everything goes well, it would make sense for us to align with partners around the world on some sort of proof  of vaccination or vaccine certification. We are now working with allies, particularly in Europe, on that. But ultimately it us up to every country to determine what requirements they expect from incoming travellers. We are looking very carefully at it, hoping to align with allied countries, but I can’t speak for the United States and the choices they might make around who they might welcome into their country.”

Trudeau said again today that vaccine certificates or passports are nothing new, noting that many countries require visitors to be inoculated against cholera or yellow fedver.

“For us and European countries as well, we’re looking at the question of vaccine certificates as to whether they’d be useful or necessary in order to travel once we are through the pandemic,” the prime minister said in French.

The PM also was asked if such passports might be at odds with U.S. policy, and whether it’s possible that Canada might require visitors from the U.S. to have an inoculation certificate while the U.S. doesn’t require the same of Canadians.

“We have seen from the outset that we are trying to align ourselves with our partners, particularly the United States. That’s what we’ve done with the land border from the outset,” he said. “Ideally we’d have similar measures, but our responsibility is to do everything necessary to protect Canadians and we are gong to do that, even if there isn’t automatically symmetry with other countries.”

Asked if Canada might require a certain number of Canadians to have both doses of a COVID-19 vaccine before bringing in such questions, Trudeau said his government will follow science experts. But he also said Ottawa has to make sure the system is “fair for everyone.”

Health Minister Patty Hajdu on the weekend said Canadians want to travel internationally and the Canadian government has to help make that happen.

“Canadians are going to want to travel and, just like there have been changes in other kinds of travel requirements over the years as a result of a number of events, Canadians need to be prepared to be able to travel internationally. And we’ll make sure that they are,” Hajdu said.

“Canadians need to be able to have the right kind of certification for international travel because, as we know, Canadians will want to travel internationally, and they will want to make sure they have the right credentials to do that from a vaccination perspective,” she said.

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