Ontario business groups call for vaccine certificate system

TORONTO COVID-19 cases appear to be on the rise in Ontario again and business groups are calling for a vaccine certificate system as a means to avoid another lockdown.

Ontario has reported rising positivity rates and more than 300 new COVID-19 cases for the past four days, with more than 400 on Sunday — levels not seen since midJune.

Premier Doug Ford has rebuffed calls from medical, political and business groups to implement a vaccine certificate system for non-essential activities, saying he doesn't want a “split society.”

But while saying he “can't stand lockdowns,” he also has not ruled out having to enact another one.

Ryan Mallough, with the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, says his group would support a vaccine certificate system if it's the difference between that and going back into a lockdown, but the government would need to be very clear on what responsibilities are for employers and employees.

Either way, Ontario businesses need to see the plan of what happens in the face of rising cases, and what the thresholds will be, Mallough said. Previously, rising cases meant lockdowns, but he wonders what it means now that the province has relatively good vaccine coverage.

“Everyone is watching those numbers like a hawk,” he said. “We've been conditioned to do that over the last 17 months — but what does the numbers going up mean now?”

Rocco Rossi, CEO of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, said a vaccine certificate system would be a way to avoid another lockdown and accelerate an economic reopening.

He took issue with the premier leaving open the possibility for another lockdown while at the same time nixing a vaccine certificate over concerns about individual rights.

“If you accept through the use of lockdown that society retains the right to limit individual rights, then we should be looking for practical tools that are the lesser of two evils, and all of us can agree that the greater danger to individual rights is a society-wide lockdown, which none of us wants to see return,” Rossi said.

The Canadian Press