Federal vaccination passport potentially forthcoming in the early fall

Last week, ahead of the election call, the federal government announced that it would create a vaccination passport for international travel by early fall. The government stated that while the passport is not intended for use domestically, it could be if provinces choose to do so.

While RCC understands that passports could be useful in some environments, we continue to express that we are generally not in favour of them in a retail setting for a host of reasons: Retail is far less discretionary and “scheduled” than air travel, sporting events, etc.; children are at the heart of a substantial amount of retail shopping and those under 12 cannot yet be vaccinated; and, people need to shop for goods whether they are vaccinated or not.