Nova Scotians getting ready to show immunization records starting Monday

HALIFAX -

On Monday, Nova Scotia will dive into new waters as proof of vaccine becomes mandatory to eat at a restaurant, go to the movies or the gym.

Some Nova Scotia businesses are anxious about how the province's new COVID-19 vaccine passport policy will work.

CTV News spoke with several restaurant managers or owners on the phone who didn't want to comment, citing the social media backlash hurled at other businesses who did.

Abigail Nicole, manager of Sidekick café in Halifax's north end, said she has been reading as much as she can on province's guidelines to prepare herself and staff.

"I know it's tough for some people but there's only so much we can do. We're not police officers, we're not the government," Nicole said, noting her business opened during the pandemic and is already coping with staffing shortages.

"There is not fear but I think there is a level of uncertainty in terms of what we're going to have to deal with," Nicole said.

Nicole and her staff will be required to ask customers for proof of vaccine, and cross-reference their immunization card with a piece of ID.

"Just make sure they are who they say they are and we can kind of get it over as quickly as possible," Nicole said.

In Nova Scotia, public health is encouraging people to print a new immunization card that includes a QR code -- a new federal standard that became available for Nova Scotians on Friday.

While CTV News tried in the morning and early afternoon to access the new passport and was unable to, by late afternoon, it was available after plugging in health card information and an email address at Novascotia.ca/proof.

"It's the federal standard card and as of Oct. 22, Nova Scotia will implement VaxCheckNS, a QR code scanner app that businesses and organizations can use on a smartphone or other device to scan a paper or digital version of person's proof of vaccination," said Kristen Lipscombe, media relations advisor with Nova Scotia Department of Health and Wellness.

Vaccine passports have been rolled out across Canada, including in New Brunswick.

At the Old Triangle in Moncton, manager Todd VanIderstine said it wasn't a smooth start.

"Just with people not being aware, those who disagree with it or just people forgetting," he said.

While provinces are beginning to adopt a federal standard of a COVID-19 passport, that will eventually be used for international travel, it's currently a patchwork of COVID passes across the country—making some passes tough to recognize and the rules tough to enforce.

"It scaled from something that looked like a word document to the QR system in Quebec to stickers to handwritten notes," VanIderstine said.

Bruce Macfarlane, communications director with the Department of Health in New Brunswick, said the province isworking toward adopting the federal standard format that includes a verifiable vaccination credential in the form of a QR code in MyHealthNB. 

"This credential can be used for international travel, with the potential for domestic use also," he said.