Trudeau Liberals consider relying on airport security officers to verify travellers' vaccination status

Instead of having airlines verify passengers' vaccination status, the Liberal government is looking to hand that responsibility off to airport security officers.

Last week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that as of October 30, all air, train and boat travellers in Canada 12 or older must be fully vaccinated. With that comes added responsibilities for transportation providers, who must now verify each passenger's vaccination status.

According to CP24, airlines have been lobbying to get The Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA) to fulfill those duties. WestJet's head of government relations and regulatory affairs Andy Gibbons argues that "verifying the legitimacy of people's vaccination records should reside with government."

Flair Airlines CEO Stephen Jones also believes it should be a government responsibility, arguing that, "This is a federal mandate and that's a federally run process, and so it would make sense to have it at that [security] point." He added that if it is left up to airlines to check at the gate, "you can have people wandering around on the secure side of the airport without having had their vaccination status checked."

Beyond deciding who does the checking, another key issue is the fact that Canada as a nation does not have a coherent system of regulations between provinces and territories. As CP24 reports, for example, in Nova Scotia and Alberta any World Health Organization-approved vaccine is recognized, whereas in other provinces-and territories the "approved" list is much shorter.