Regina Mayor Sandra Masters says a time where proof of vaccination is needed for a variety of events in the Queen City, is coming.

Masters says work is underway between the province, Regina Exhibition Association Limited and City of Regina (REAL) to create a QR code or bar code system to allow for easy proof of vaccination.

“Given the national nature of some of our tenants and events, I think (REAL) is hoping to implement a system that allows them to support tenants — given some of the pressures across the country,” Masters said. “We’re looking at something long-term, not just a fix for the short term just because we do not want to bury hosting events and sporting activities to be that we don’t have a process for verifying vaccination status.”

Masters says the program will be scalable for different sizes of events.

She says the bottom line is people need to get vaccinated.

“More than 50 percent of who we’ve got in hospital right now are between the ages of 20-39 years of age, we are not talking about anyone other than young people right now as it relates to the majority of who is having to attend hospitals,” Masters said. “We know that more than three-quarters of those in hospitals are unvaccinated.”

Masters says she would like to see the program start by the middle of September.

Some jurisdictions are bringing back masking requirements for indoor gatherings. Masters says the City is looking at their options, but will not be implementing a similar program at this time.