Alberta businesses frustrated with provincial vaccine passport system

EDMONTON – Alberta business owners are frustrated after a week of the province’s vaccine passport program, saying much like last year’s mask mandate, enforcement has fallen on their shoulders.

Video has circulated on social media of a packed Edmonton bar with patrons not wearing masks or social distancing, which had some people concerned about whether or not everyone in that bar was vaccinated.

Cherie Klassen with the Old Strathcona Business Association says business owners have been left to try to interpret and enforce rules themselves, and that’s not fair.

“They’re not getting a lot of support or clarity from the government as to what they’re supposed to be doing,” she said.

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“If you are running into a problem and dealing with a hostile individual–is it a call to 911? Is there a different avenue? Are there AHS enforcement officers, going in periodically doing checks?”

Not only are business owners left in the dark around enforcement, Klassen says, but constantly changing public health restrictions are creating confusion for customers as well, with a vaccine passport that can be edited to show anything you want.

“And the details of it change daily which makes it even more tense for both businesses and patrons. Patrons don’t also know what they’re supposed to be doing. The current vaccination card is very easy to edit so we need to see a more verifiable type of vaccination card or QR code.”

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CityNews reached out to Alberta Health Services for the number of incidents and enforcement of the restrictions exemption program, but AHS has yet to respond.

While vaccine cards aim to return some normalcy, a group of Alberta physicians is calling for fire breaker measures to curb surging COVID cases in the province.

Dr. Paul Boucher with the Alberta Medical Association says in a letter that while doctors understand the economic impacts of lockdowns, say it’s a matter of life and death.

“When you’re flirting with having to implement the triage protocol, you know, and actually deny care to Albertans that otherwise would receive it and run with it– I think we’re all trying to avoid that,” he said.

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“We’ve seen these lockdowns work. They’re hard and it is really the last thing that I want it to be in front of people advocating for, but they work.”

Premier Jason Kenney recently told a Corus radio show he wasn’t interested in introducing more COVID-19 health measures because he believes they’d only punish the vaccinated.

Meantime Ottawa has agreed to send in reinforcements to help Alberta manage the brutal fourth wave that has put the province’s health system on the verge of collapse.