ACTA says the lack of recognition of Canadian vaccinations by other nations and out-of-date travel advisories are negatively impacting Canadian travellers and the survival of travel businesses.
The national travel advisor organization is calling on the federal government to urgently address the issues of global recognition of vaccinations as well as reverting to country specific risk based travel advisories for fully vaccinated travellers.
To speed up the vaccination process at a time when obtaining vaccines wasn't easy, the Canadian government promoted mixed vaccinations and the use of the AstraZeneca viral vector vaccine. As a result, many Canadians are unable to travel abroad since some foreign health authorities, including the U.S, do not currently recognize the mixing of vaccination brands.
On vaccination recognition, ACTA is asking the federal government to:
- Plan a coordinated national proof of vaccination certificate program, using global best practices to ensure broad recognition. Preferably, the program would be developed multilaterally with countries frequented by Canadian travellers.
- Continue engaging with foreign governments to ensure that Health Canada approved vaccination schedules and World Health Organization approved vaccination agents are recognized globally. ACTA says this includes "immediate and aggressive diplomacy" to ensure the upcoming U.S. traveller policy does not prohibit the entry of Canadians based on mixed vaccination status.
- Concerning travel advisories, ACTA says Canada's global "avoid non essential travel" and "avoid all cruise ship travel" need to be updated in the current contest of broad vaccination. Those advisories have been in effect for over 18 months, even before vaccines were available.
"Now that safe and highly effective vaccinations against COVID19 are broadly available, Global Affairs Canada should update its global travel advisory," ACTA said in a statement.
The organization proposes the creation of two streams of advisories, one for vaccinated travellers and one for unvaccinated:
- ACTA says the global travel advisory should be removed for fully vaccinated travellers, recognizing the protection offered by vaccination. Country specific advisories should be based on risk.
- For unvaccinated travellers, ACTA says the global travel advisory should continue as safety concerns for these individuals remain.
ACTA says the approach would also apply to cruise travel.
"In the past few months, cruise lines have adopted strict biohazard protocols and have proven that safe operations are feasible. Global Affairs Canada should modify the cruise travel advisory for fully vaccinated travellers on cruise lines that have adopted strict biohazard safety protocols," the organization states.
Again, the advisory would remain in place for unvaccinated travellers.
ACTA is also proposing a post arrival testing regime for children for whom vaccinations are unavailable. Currently, children must undertake several molecular COVID19 tests and go through a period of isolation, a significant cost and time barrier to family travellers.
"These children should only be tested prior to travel and upon arrival, with the third test and the period of isolation removed," ACTA says. "This is a prudent and cautious approach that removes barriers to family travellers while preserving community safety."
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