Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has released details on the federal government's vaccine passport that will be needed for international travel.

Trudeau made the announcement this morning (Oct. 21) alongside Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario in Ottawa.

"We made a commitment to ensure there is a national standard for a proof of vaccination certificate that will be issued by every province and territory so that people can travel domestically but particularly internationally," said Trudeau.

The new proof of vaccination has been created to be standardized across the country. Trudeau confirmed that all provinces have committed to implementing this new standardized vaccine document. Some provinces across the country are already using the standardized proof of vaccine document.

An official Canada Wordmark will be added to the document and can be found in the upper right-hand corner.

The standardized proof of vaccine will display the following information:

-Holders name

-Date of birth

-COVID-19 vaccination history

-Number of doses received

-Vaccine types

-Dates of vaccine immunization

Trudeau also noted the new vaccine certificates can be downloaded to a phone, can be printed, or a physical copy can be mailed to you.

This standardized information will allow border officials to verify if a traveler has the proper requirements to enter their country by either manually reading the information or scanning the traveler's QR code.

The federal government has designed this new proof of vaccine following the international standard for Smart Health Cards. A Smart Health Card supports digital signatures, which enables other countries to validate that the document was indeed issued by an authoritative source such as a provincial or territorial Ministery of Health.

The Smart Health Card is also equipped with security features that prevent tampering and forging.

The federal government has also updated the Arrive-CAN app to include the new proof of vaccination document.

In the coming weeks, the federal government will be changing the global travel health advisory to a destination-based approach to assist Canadians with future travel plans.

On November 8, 2021, US land and sea borders will be open to fully vaccinated Canadians for non-essential reasons.

 

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