Many of us look forward to this moment when we will be able to get on the plane again and fly on a dream vacation abroad or host our family from abroad in Canada.
While the European Union and the United States are agreeing on mutual opening to tourist traffic from this summer season, Canada has only just started working on certificates that would enable international travel.
According to information from Tourism Minister Melanie Joly today, Canada has started work with international partners to standardize vaccine certification for international travel and will want to rank as a safe destination as soon as it obtains herd immunity to Covid-19.
At present, Canada has a higher Covid-19 infection rate than the United States, where the vaccination program during the third wave of the pandemic is performing extremely well.
In our country, we have only 3% of the population of 38 million fully vaccinated. More than 34% of the population received the first dose of the vaccine, and millions of subsequent contracted doses flow into the country each week.
During a virtual meeting with her partners within the G20 countries, the tourism minister said that as soon as vaccines are made more widely available, Canada will announce and position itself as a safe destination. She gave no more details. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, on the other hand, said that anyone who wishes will be able to get fully vaccinated by the end of September.
Since last March, Canada’s border with the United States has been closed to non-essential travels, and mandatory airport hotel quarantine and testing have been introduced for those arriving by plane.
The third wave of the pandemic currently facing the country, and the relatively slow rate of vaccination compared to other countries, undermine the hopes of airlines and the tourism sector for more intensive travel this summer.
Tourism Minister Joly says that many local and regional trips will be possible during this summer season.
Also, today, Prime Minister Trudeau said talks are taking place with international partners to certify vaccines.
According to Minister Joly, such talks are taking place with partners from the most developed G7 countries and with some G20 countries.
Prime Minister Trudeau told reporters that it would make sense for us to ally with partners around the world on some evidence of vaccination or vaccine certification.
In January, Prime Minister Trudeau told Reuters in an interview that he was against vaccine passports because he believed they could be divisive.
Taking into account the pace of vaccinations in other countries, as well as its opening and recovery from lockdown, for example in Great Britain or the USA, we are “only” 1-2 months behind. Depending on whether, when and how many vaccines will actually reach us, we will be able to talk about the success of obtaining herd immunity and look forward to the news of the return to normal life that we had before the pandemic, including the possibility of traveling from Canada to the world and the possibility of hosting our families and tourists in our country.