Mayor presses province for vaccine passports
Mayor Jim Watson is pressing Premier Doug Ford for a way to make people prove they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as Gatineau businesses prepare to start checking customers under Quebec's passport system.
In a letter co-signed by health board chair Keith Egli and released publicly on Monday, Watson called on Ford to implement a proof-of-vaccination system to guard against another economic catastrophe as the number of positive COVID-19 cases increases.
“Recent reports have suggested that the Province is considering implementing some form of proof of vaccination program,” the letter says.
“We urge you to approve this program as quickly as possible,” it says, to “dramatically reduce the odds of another economically and socially destructive shutdown.”
Watson pointed out the challenge of Ottawa bordering Quebec when that province is about to launch a vaccine passport system.
Starting Wednesday in Quebec, people who want to eat at restaurants, exercise at gyms, gamble at casinos and watch movies at theatres must show proof of vaccination.
The vaccine passport will be required for people 13 years old and older.
As of Monday, Ontario didn't have a similar proof-of-vaccination system and the provincial Progressive Conservative government hadn't announced plans to create one. That is not acceptable to Watson. “Allowing those who have chosen to remain unvaccinated to go about their daily lives with little to no consequence for their decision cannot be an option,” Watson's letter says.
“Governments across Canada and around the world are choosing to enact proof of vaccination programs as an incentive for everyone who wants to return to normalcy to get vaccinated.”
Watson highlighted Ottawa's special circumstance, located next to Gatineau and the rest of west Quebec. He said “there is now an increased likelihood that Quebec residents who are not vaccinated will choose to come to Ottawa to do their shopping, eat in restaurants and take part in other activities where it is easier to transmit and contract COVID-19, leading to more local transmission in Ottawa.”
Ottawa businesses are also at an economic disadvantage, Watson wrote, since residents here might take their money to Gatineau businesses knowing there are greater health protections in place.
Watson also said a regional vaccination certificate program wouldn't work since people are visiting Ottawa from Quebec and other parts of Ontario.
Some local medical officers of health in Ontario have been considering their own vaccination passport system if the provincial government doesn't create one.
In his letter, Watson said it's unfair for individual businesses to create their own vaccination-checking systems. The Ottawa Redblacks, he noted, are planning to launch a vaccination-proof program on Sept. 12 for people coming to TD Place.
“The simplest and most effective way to implement a proof of vaccination program is through the province,” Watson wrote, noting Ontario has all residents' vaccination information and the authority to mandate a show-proof program.
Ontario's Big City Mayors, an organization of mayors who represent Ontario cities with populations of 100,000 or more, has also called on the province to create a proof-of-vaccination system.