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Shop NowThe Canadian province of Quebec evidently wants no part of the crisis Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has created in Ottawa. Premier François Legault has said that he has no desire to see Trudeau’s invocation of the Emergencies Act applied to his province, pointing out that Quebec has had no major problems and the emergency declaration would only create issues. Several premiers, including Legault, have recently moved to drop certain mandates and restrictions.
Quebec votes to keep emergency powers out of province
Quebec’s health minister says that the province’s decision to drop vaccine passport requirements next month has nothing to do with the drama in Ottawa.
Christian Dubé claimed that the local Covid situation has improved enough to make this the “right time” to begin cutting back on public mandates.
At the very least it is convenient timing for Quebec’s government, given that the chaos in the capital now has the potential to spill over into the province with Trudeau’s use of the Emergencies Act.
Quebec’s National Assembly unanimously adopted a motion demanding that the government not apply the Emergencies Act to their province.
Premiers in other provinces have joined Legault in voicing their opposition to the Emergencies Act and telling Trudeau that there is no need or desire for it to be applied in their parts of the country.
Trudeau has not received an especially enthusiastic response from any of the other major parties following his announcement that he planned to use the act to break up the trucker protests.
Mandates to be phased out
Trudeau has attempted to alleviate provincial concerns by saying that his application of the Emergencies Act will be targeted and that he will not be giving himself “blanket powers across the country.”
Quebec claims that it can now begin to remove the vaccine passport because the system has been a success, which it claims drove 600,000 people to be vaccinated.
Just a month ago the government was still expanding use of vaccine passports, making this a very rapid change of pace to begin phasing them out.
Some critics felt that the decision was a surrender to the protesters and primarily a populist political ploy, rather than a sincere medical decision.
Quebec will still be requiring masks and proof of vaccination for certain indoor spaces, as well as rail and air travel, but restrictions will generally be much lighter.
Interestingly, the first locations which will be exempted from the mandates in coming days will be liquor and cannabis stores.
