Canadian business sector largely supportive of ‘vaccine passports’

The Quebec government already moved forward to implement a provincial vaccine passport. Quebec Premier Francois Legault also said that he wouldn't be willing to lock the province back down again.

According to Global News, Perrin Beatty, the President of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, commented: "The private sector, like Canadians as a whole, is diverse — but one thing in which the private sector is very much united is that we can’t afford to go into more across-the-board lockdowns."

"Absent [a 'vaccine passport'], what you have is people being held hostage," continued Beatty.

A Toronto-based group of businesspeople, the Toronto Region Board of Trade, had previously expressed something similar, stating: "The EU as of July 1st has gone live with the digital pass, and the reason why we’re so pro using that tool is that we’ve worked so hard," adding, "our small businesses have gone through multiple lockdowns that have had a devastating effect to them."

"Now that we’ve got sufficient vaccine, it’s a way to start resuming a more normal form of day-to-day living."

However, other Premiers, such as Alberta's Jason Kenney and Ontario's Doug Ford, rejected implementing such a measure in their respective provinces.

Ford commented: "I’ve never believed in proof. The answer is no. We aren’t going to do it. We aren’t going to have a split society."

Kenney recently said Alberta isn't going to "take lectures" from federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu. He accused her of allowing COVID into Canada by delaying the closure of the border last year.