'Another way to manage COVID': Calgary Chamber of Commerce asks province for vaccine passports

(File photo)

CALGARY -

The Calgary Chamber of Commerce is asking the province to create a vaccine passport.

Chamber president Deborah Yedlin says the push for the documentation comes from members worried about the safety of staff and customers as the province moves to lift almost all COVID-19 health measures next week.

“In the absence of having mechanisms to test trace and isolate, we need another way to manage the pandemic. We need another way to manage COVID," said Yedlin.

"You know, there's an adage in business, ‘if you can't measure it, you can't manage it. Those mechanisms are going to be eliminated as of next week, so we need some other way to measure the vaccination rate and to make sure that everybody's safe."

Yedlin maintains vaccine passports will help, not hinder, businesses recovering from more than a year of pandemic losses.

“The thing is, we know that vaccinations are the way for us to deal with this pandemic and make sure that we have a safe and open economy, so we can continue to move along the path toward economic growth," she said.

“What we know is that people that are potentially at risk are going to change the way they consume services. If they're not feeling safe, they're not going to buy a ticket to go to an event, they're not going to go into a store, they're not going to go to a gym, because they're concerned about their own safety.”

The chamber is not asking the province to make vaccination passports be mandatory, simply to make them available for those who choose to use them.

Jeff Bradshaw is a Calgary entrepreneur whose latest business is the Inglewood plant store, Plantsie.

While he supports vaccinations, and is vaccinated himself, he says he could not imagine a scenario where he or his staff demand proof of a customer’s vaccine status before serving them.

Jeff Bradshaw, owner of Plantsie in Calgary, says he wouldn't ask patrons for prove of vaccination.

Plantsie owner Jeff Bradshaw

“Am I going to have somebody man my front door and ask people for a passport and then turn somebody away because they haven't been vaccinated? Because they have a different belief than what I may have? I can't see us doing it.” Said Bradshaw.

“Small businesses like ours have been taxed over the past year with just trying to stay alive. So for us to have to put an employee - let alone a 16, or an 18-year-old employee - at the front door and have them telling somebody to leave … I'm just not prepared to do that. “

The Calgary Chamber of Commerce has put its request in to the premier's office. When CTV called Premier Jason Kenney for comment, his staff emailed a transcript of a July 12 speech in which Kenney reaffirmed his opposition to vaccine certification documentation.

“We've been very clear from the beginning that we will not facilitate or accept vaccine passports. And that in fact, I believe that they would, in principle, contravene the Health Information Act and also possibly the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act," said Kenney at the time.

“We also amended the Public Health Act to remove the 110-year-old power allowing Alberta to force people to be inoculated. So these folks who are concerned about mandatory vaccines have nothing to be concerned about and there will be no vaccine passports in Alberta.”

University of Calgary law professor Lorain Hardcastle says if done right, vaccine passports do not violate privacy laws.

“It is reasonable for businesses to argue that they want to keep their patrons safe and that the way that they're going to do that is through proof of vaccine,” said Hardcastle.

“In terms of the government issuing these vaccine passports, I think that they too could issue documents that are consistent with the law. They could issue documents that disclose very limited personal information. And of course, this information would only be used with the individuals consent. If an individual goes to a business that requires proof of vaccine, they would be the ones providing that proof. So there is that element of consent.”

Last week Quebec announced it has created a digital vaccine certification that will be rolled out across that province in September.

It will be used to allow access to events like festivals, as well restaurants, bars and gyms are being encouraged to use the vaccine passport, which stores vaccine information that can be accessed through a QR code. Testing of the Quebec vaccine app began on Wednesday.

As well on Wednesday the federal government announced it is preparing a vaccine certification app to be used by travellers, who will need certification to enter other countries.

That is expected to be operational in September.