Ontario scrapping vaccine passports and capacity limits March 1,

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The Canadian Press

Ontario is ending its vaccine certificate system on March 1, when capacity limits in public settings and restrictions on social gathering sizes will fully lift as well, though masking requirements will remain for now.

“Today’s announcement is not because of what’s happening in Ottawa or Windsor, but despite it,” Premier Doug Ford said Monday.

“The extraordinary measures that we introduced during this pandemic were always intended as a last resort. I stood at this very podium and promised you that these tools would only be used for as long as they were absolutely necessary and not one day longer. The removal of these measures has always been our objective.”

Public health indicators have been improving, with the positivity rate of COVID-19 tests dropping from a peak of nearly 40 per cent to 13 per cent, and hospitalizations down under 1,400 from a high of more than 4,000, Ford said.

Due to those metrics, Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore presented a plan to lift the COVID-19 restrictions and vaccine certificates, Ford said, noting that the plan had been in the works since before protesters began occupying downtown Ottawa more than two weeks ago.

Ford said he understands frustration with the restrictions, though he credited them for saving tens of thousands of lives, and lamented the divisions they have caused.

“All of it has polarized us in a way that we could have never imagined. I’ve experienced this in my own family. It’s been one of the hardest things my family and I have ever gone through,” said Ford, whose daughter is a vocal opponent of vaccine mandates.

“But for all of this, I can still take comfort in knowing that there remains so much that unites us.”

Ontario is now fast-tracking previously announced steps to lift restrictions, including moving the next step of its reopening plan up to Thursday instead of next Monday.

On that day, social gathering limits will increase to 50 people indoors and 100 people outdoors, while capacity limits will be removed in places such as restaurants, bars, gyms and movie theatres. Capacity at businesses such as grocery stores, pharmacies and retail stores will be set at the number of people who can maintain a distance of two metres.

Less than two weeks later, on March 1, capacity limits will be lifted in all remaining indoor public settings and proof-of-vaccination requirements will end for all settings.

Public health units can still use tools to respond to their local COVID-19 situation, and businesses and other settings can still require proof of vaccination if they choose, the province said.

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business said Monday’s announcement feels like a true step toward small businesses’ economic recovery, but sought clarity for those that choose to maintain proof of vaccination.

“Just telling them that they’re free to keep it – does that mean that they’re free to keep it without risks of a human rights case or lawsuit?” said CFIB president Dan Kelly.

“I suspect not. And so I do believe that businesses will be taking on potentially some legal risk if they maintain a proof-of-vaccination system in their business.”

In order to spur businesses’ recovery, Kelly said governments need to boost consumer confidence to take part in the reopening.

“We’ve told Canadians for two straight years that it’s dangerous to leave your home, stay home as much as possible or or leave only with really, really heavy restrictions around it,” he said.

“There are going to be many, many Canadians that are going to remain fairly hunkered down, because this is a pretty big shift in messaging. And so it’s going to take, I think, some work on the part of governments and public health officials to provide those messages of reassurance.”

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said the vaccine certificates should stay in place, because they can still protect seniors who are at higher risk of severe illness and children still too young to be vaccinated.

“I think everybody wants to have restaurants opened and gyms and pretty much everywhere, but the thing that allows us to do that and keep us all safe is the certificate program,” she said. “Really the only people who see the certificates as a restriction or a problem are the anti-vaxxers.”

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