On Friday, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney reiterated his stance on vaccine mandates, ensuring Albertans that there will be absolutely no provincial mandate.
Alberta’s Legislature removed the power of mandatory vaccination from the Public Health Act last year and will not revisit that decision, period,” Kenney wrote in a Tweet.
“While we strongly encourage those who are eligible to get vaccinated, it is ultimately a personal choice that individuals must make.”
Alberta’s Legislature removed the power of mandatory vaccination from the Public Health Act last year and will not revisit that decision, period.
While we strongly encourage those who are eligible to get vaccinated, it is ultimately a personal choice that individuals must make. https://t.co/16DcwLqknp
— Jason Kenney (@jkenney) January 7, 2022
Kenney’s comments are in response to those made by the Liberal Minister of Health Jean-Yves Duclos, who asserts that compulsory vaccines are coming soon and will be implemented on the provincial level.
“What we see now is that our health care system in Canada is fragile, our people are tired, and the only way that we know to get through COVID-19, this variant and any future variant, is through vaccination,” Duclos said while speaking to the CBC.
“Fifty per cent of hospitalizations now, in Quebec, are due to people not having been vaccinated,” he said. “That’s a burden on health care workers, a burden on society which is very difficult to bear and for many people difficult to understand,” he continued.
“That’s why I’m signaling this is a conversation which I believe provinces and territories, in support with the federal government, will want to have over the next weeks and months.”
Duclos’s comments come only one day after Quebec’s government decided to change its vaccine passport policy, which now requires residents to receive a booster dose to be considered fully vaccinated and is applied to liquor and cannabis stores.
Fortunately for Albertans, Kenney (along with Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, despite all his faults) has been better than other premiers in limiting the scope of Alberta’s vaccine passport system.
Other Premiers, such as Ontario’s Doug Ford and Quebec’s Francois Legault, will almost definitely follow incentives set out by the federal government, as we have seen repeatedly over the last two years.
