While refusing to admit defeat, the major renovation centers in the province are preparing, for lack of anything better, to demand the vaccine passport from Monday. An obligation that will not be smooth.
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“These are big expenses,” says Canac marketing director Patrick Delisle. We just bought a hundred cell phones. […] We have put Garda officers in our 31 stores. Trying to guess the bill? We are in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
Like all major retailers (Walmart, Costco, Simons, etc.), Canac hardware stores will be required to impose the vaccination obligation on their customers, which the president of the Quebec Hardware and Building Materials Association deplores. (AQMAT), Richard Darveau.
“We still don’t know how the rules will be applied. Three days from its application, no one has yet seen the decree which must be adopted. But we have no choice, he said bitterly. It is the government that decides.”
In fact, despite the pressure exerted since last week, the Legault government still intends to go ahead with the imposition of the vaccine passport in stores of 1,500 square meters (or 16,000 ft2) and more. Last night, the application framework for this new measure was still being drafted.
At a press conference, the Prime Minister said he heard the demands of those who, like large retailers, want the measures to be relaxed.
“We can not afford to relax more, tried to justify François Legault. […] Public Health tells us that there would be a real risk of increased contamination and hospitalization; what we cannot do”.
Screenshot taken from website
One of the tools made available to retailers by AQMAT.
Explanations that are difficult to accept at Canac, where it was hoped that Quebec would review its position to add hardware stores among the businesses deemed essential.
“It’s obvious that we are disappointed, says Patrick Delisle. We were considered an essential service at the start of the pandemic, and with good reason. […] We consider this to be discriminatory for our customers. Are we going to say no to customers for water damage because they are not vaccinated? We don’t want to be in that position. It is not our role”.
In the meantime, the group of hardware stores has created two models of signs that their members can display to inform their customers about the need or not to present their vaccination passport.
“Customers are involved and we understand them. How do you want them to know if their merchant is more or less than 16,000 ft2 ?, asks Isabelle Champagne, from AQMAT. With such a poster, everyone will be better equipped to explain or understand the measure that applies on site.
In addition, the association claims from the government that the vaccination obligation does not apply to construction professionals. The latter would be responsible, year in, year out, for half of the industry’s $8 billion in sales in Quebec.
Finally, if the decree were to be adopted as planned, Richard Darveau would like the vaccination requirement to end in March, in order to protect spring (April to June) – the most important season of the year for hardware stores. – any possibility of disruption.
–With Marc-André Gagnon, Parliamentary Office