Ontario Begins Rolling Out Enhanced Vaccine Certificates

Yesterday, the Government of Ontario released the Verify Ontario app. 

While the free app is aimed at businesses (indoor restaurants, gyms, etc.) who must check each patron’s vaccine status, it may be used by anyone to verify enhanced vaccine certificates issued in Ontario, Quebec, Yukon, and British Columbia. This includes staff at condominium corporations that have chosen to require amenity users be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. 

The app uses the smartphone’s camera to read a QR code generated by the province. QR Codes are being rolled out over the next three days:

• People born in January, February, March or April can get their codes Friday, Oct. 15

• People born in May, June, July or August can get their codes Saturday, Oct. 16

• People born in September, October, November or December can get their codes starting Sunday, Oct. 17

• Anyone who misses their date can download their QR code on Oct. 18

People can download their QR codes here: https://covid-19.ontario.ca/get-proof/

Verify Ontario does not connect to the internet or make any record of the reading. It returns a Green Check, Yellow Warning, or Red X, depending on whether the QR code can be read and whether it is consistent with a valid vaccine record. The intent is that the QR code is scanned each time the person wishes to enter the restricted area. 

Vaccine receipts without a QR code are still considered valid as proof of vaccination in Ontario.

As we wrote before, whether to implement a vaccine mandate is up to each board. Generally, it may make sense for larger corporations with on-site concierges that can verify each user’s vaccination status. The boards of other corporations will need to look at the needs of their communities, and if they do want to mandate vaccines, they will need to consider other ways to enforce the requirement.