Release date: October 21, 2021

COVID-19 Passports/Certificates and QR Codes and Other Announcements

A lot has happened over the last month!

As everyone will have heard, last month the Ontario government announced that effective September 22nd, proof of full vaccinations and vaccine passports (referred to as “certificates”) are required for certain places open to the public, such as restaurants, casinos, and movie theatres. Here is the list of facilities or locations that require this.

A common misconception is that the government mandated vaccinations for everyone across the province. This is not the case. Rather, the government required full vaccination and the passport/certificate for those who want access to, and use of, the listed public facilities. 

The Ministry of Health has confirmed that residential condominium corporations are not subject to this mandatory order because the corporation and its amenities are considered private dwellings and are not places that are open to the public. Whether or not a corporation should nonetheless follow mandatory vaccinations and proof through passports is for each Board of Directors to decide based on their community and what is in the best interest of their owners and residents. Professional advice should be obtained before making any such decision.

Proof of full vaccination is given by the passport, which up until October 15th, was in the form of paper copies of your vaccination receipts, or photos of them (e.g. on your mobile device). The government announced that an app and QR Codes would be available by October 22nd, 2021.

Surprisingly, the government moved up the launch date for the app to October 15th (called the “Verify Ontario” app) with the QR Codes rolled out on October 15th, 16th and 17th, based on your month of birth. If you missed your dedicated date for downloading, then you can now download your QR codes from https://covid-19.ontario.ca/get-proof.

For those who might not have a smartphone, then you can continue to provide the proof in the same manner as before the launch of the QR Codes.

As can be seen, the COVID-19 world changes day by day. We will continue to monitor all announcements and let everyone know as quickly as possible. 

Stay tuned and stay safe and healthy.

CCI is committed to providing regular ongoing updates regarding all legislation concerning condominiums, in order to keep our members abreast of changes they need to be aware of.