At least one Hamilton restaurant is facing charges for not enforcing the province’s vaccine certificate program, but it seems more charges for other businesses could be on the way.
According to the city’s bylaw enforcement page, Empire Burger on King Street West was charged on Sunday for failing to check customers’ vaccination status.
It’s the first Hamilton business to be fined since the policy came into effect on Sept. 22, although the city has been conducting enforcement at a number of local businesses that publicly stated they would be refusing to enforce the policy.
One of those businesses refusing to comply is the Harbour Diner on James Street North. Owner Jenna Graham recently told Global News that she doesn’t think asking for people’s medical information is something that’s in their job description.
Nique, another business on James Street North, is under investigation by Ontario’s Ministry of Labour for a potential breach in the vaccine certificate policy.
Global News has reached out to Empire Burger to ask about their stance on the vaccine certificate policy and whether they will be fighting the charge, which can carry a fine between $750 and $1000.
Business owners who don’t follow the rules may face fines of up to $10 million under the Reopening Ontario Act.
Jason Thorne, director of Hamilton’s emergency operations centre, said he is aware of some local restaurants publicly stating they won’t be enforcing the vaccine certificate program and says charges could be on the way for those businesses.
“If we see that kind of flagrant disregard, that’s when we’ll be issuing charges,” said Thorne during the city’s COVID-19 media briefing on Monday. “I do expect some more in the coming days based on some of the other enforcement activities we were doing over the weekend.”
“We also monitor social media and some of those statements that are made, and yes, those do become places that we target for some of our proactive enforcement.”
Hamilton’s mayor said businesses who publicize their refusal to comply with the vaccine policy are making the city’s job of enforcing it easier, but also condemns the ‘unfortunate’ attitudes of those business owners.
“I don’t think it’s going to be in their interest to hold on to that theory because 80 per cent or more of the population supports getting vaccinated and vaccine verification,” said Fred Eisenberger during Monday’s update.
Overall, bylaw officers laid a total of 31 charges against 13 different Hamilton businesses over the past week.
Nine of those were at restaurants, bars, or cafes, while the other four were at salons or personal care services.
Thorne said sometimes businesses don’t realize that other longstanding regulations related to COVID-19 like masking and conducting contact tracing still need to be in place, even with the vaccine verification policy now in effect.
“We are making sure that we’re clear with businesses that you still have to do all of those things that you’ve been doing for the past several months and that the passport requirement is above and beyond those,” said Thorne.
— with files from Don Mitchell, Global News