Quebec talking about increasing vaccine mandates on more non-essential businesses

Unvaccinated Quebecers may soon have to use their own curling irons. Meaning it’s possible you’ll soon need to present proof of vaccination at the door of a salon, as the province floats the idea of imposing vaccine passports on salons and other non-essential businesses like shopping malls.

Now that Quebec is already requiring it for liquor and cannabis stores starting Jan. 18, some working in the retail and beauty industries are against the possible measure, saying it won’t be feasible to apply.

“As a small business we pay a lot of taxes and we try to run the business the best way we can. But putting someone at the door, checking vaxi-codes, you have to pay salary to do that,” explained Claudia Iacono, owner of Salon Deauville. “There’s a lot of stuff to consider and there’s a lot of things they should look into.”

The retail sector in Quebec is already facing a shortage of 25,000 workers and some say someone scanning passports would add to the burden.

“We will have to take a person from the store, from the cash register, to make sure he’s at the front, to make sure that people are vaccinated to enter the store,” said Jean-Guy Côté, director-general of Quebec Retail Council (CQCD).

In the last few days, appointments for first doses have increased from 1,500 per day to more than 6,000. About nine per cent of Quebecers 12 and up have yet to receive a first dose and businesses affected by the potential measure say it could hurt their bottom lines

“I find that it’s not fair for clients that have been coming to me for 20 years and I would tell them you cannot do your service here anymore because you’re not vaccinated. This is something that would really, really bother me and I just feel like they are removing a lot of our rights,” said Iacono.

The SAQ already took to reminding customers they can shop online and opt for home delivery, but the union representing its employees says they want security bolstered to deal with potential conflicts with unvaccinated customers.

“The SAQ has said that they’re going to put about 120 Garda Security agents in our stores which are considered at risk,” Liam Belcourt, vice-president of health and safety of SAQ employees’ union, told CityNews.

“Conflictual situations have occurred related to COVID problems. People who don’t want to wear masks, there have been fights in SAQ stores over this kind of stuff.”