The province will not be providing extra funds to municipalities for the enforcement of the new vaccine certificate program.
Ontario residents now need to show proof that they are fully vaccinated before going to restaurants, gyms, casinos, or inside recreational facilities.
Municipal by-law officers and health unit inspectors will be responsible for enforcing the new program. In addition, municipal staff will have to be on hand to check the vaccination status of individuals accessing municipal facilities.
At a news conference on the launch of the program, Premier Doug Ford said, at this time, there are no plans to allocate additional funds to municipalities to assist with the cost of enforcement.
Ford also told reporters he has had discussions about increasing capacity limits inside restaurants, but they will remain the same for now.
"We just want to make sure we can always move forward and not backwards. Make sure that we can continue expanding on capacity limits but saying that do it cautiously and make sure that we have the backs of our businesses and they get back on their feet," said Ford.
A digital vaccine passport is currently under development. It's expected to be launched by October 22, 2021.
Ford said the vaccine certificate will only be in place as long as it is necessary. However, he gave no specific criteria on what it would take to end the program.
