Ontario gyms, fitness studios and other customer-based businesses may be breaking the law as of Wednesday if they don’t check their customers’ vaccination status every time customers enter the facility.
Some companies, including GoodLife Fitness, have designed a one-time vaccination monitoring system for clients so that users don’t have to bring their certificates every time they want to exercise.
But it’s unclear if this goes against the rules of Ontario’s vaccine certification regulations, which go into effect Sept. 22 and require proof of vaccination or vaccine exemption to enter many non-essential businesses.
The regulations do not directly address the problem of repeat customers, but they do state that companies cannot withhold any information provided by customers for the purposes of vaccine certification.
In an email late Monday, a spokesman for the Health Ministry said this means that businesses like gyms must check a customer’s vaccine status every time they enter the facility. However, on Tuesday the Ministry did not provide a direct answer on whether the GoodLife system and other similar systems were breaking the rules.
Aleksander Saiyan, director of operations of the Toronto Dance Salsa Inc. studio, had already demanded vaccination of clients since July. To make things easier, he asked clients to send him their certificates so that he could verify them, and then clients would not need to verify them again. I planned to use this system until the app comes out in October.
So Saiyan thought he was ready for September 22, until he found out that the regulations say otherwise.
“That means we just have to adjust,” Saiyan said, though it will be an additional inconvenience to him, his staff, and his clients. “The last thing I want is to be fined or shut down or feel like we are violating their privacy.”
The optional GoodLife Fitness Fast Pass allows members to visit the gym without showing documentation each time they visit.
Chief Operating Officer Jason Sheridan said GoodLife will not keep copies of vaccination certificates or other related documentation.
“We will simply note that proof of eligibility has been provided and verified and that the member is eligible to access our clubs under provincial rules,” Sheridan said in an email.
Sheridan said GoodLife is confident its system complies with the law.
“The information they have provided us, as well as our legal assessment, confirm that our expedited approval process is acceptable under the regulations,” he said.
MOVATI Athletic is also establishing a “quick help desk” where customers can consent to the company “temporarily holding a record confirming their proof of vaccination,” Senior Vice President of Marketing Susan Mandryk said in an email.
This is a voluntary service, Mandryk said, and clients can opt out at any time.
The Star asked the Health Ministry if this route would violate the new rules, but did not receive a clear answer on Tuesday, despite the ministry saying on Monday that companies must verify vaccine certificates every time a customer enters.
“When confirming that a person has been vaccinated, it is important that their health data is protected,” a spokesperson said in an email Tuesday. “Companies or organizations that want to create their own policies or additional requirements can consult with legal counsel.”
Kris Klein, an attorney at nNovation LLP and an expert in privacy, access to information and information security, believes that companies that use a single verification system will have a good legal argument in favor of such a system, as long as they retain only a “check mark” of some kind and not a client’s actual vaccination certificate.
“I think what is going to happen is when the company institutes a reasonable practice that the average person would consider reasonable … they will probably interpret the law to fit that practical and reasonable purpose,” he said.
From a privacy perspective, there is a big difference between retaining a copy of someone’s vaccination certificate and retaining a simple record that their vaccination certificate has been verified, Klein said.
Some companies play it safe until they receive more guidance.
Ian Smith, owner of the Fort York location of Orangetheory Fitness, said that for now the company will review customers’ certificates every time they visit. However, he said they will seek clarity on whether they are allowed to adopt a one-time system.
It feels like a “waste of time” to check client certificates every time, Smith said, since many of them are well known to staff.
Alex Kucharski, director of the Ontario Independent Fitness Studio Association and owner of an F45 studio in Toronto, said in an email Monday that it “doesn’t make any sense” for membership-based companies to have to repeatedly verify vaccine certificates.
“I hope the government understands the burden on business and takes a more nuanced approach to law enforcement,” said Kucharski.
Julie Kwiecinski, director of provincial affairs for Ontario at the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, said there has been a lack of clarity from the government about what companies can and cannot do.
Kwiecinski is concerned that some companies may incur fines for violating the vaccine’s mandate regulations without knowing they are doing it, and called for an education-first approach to enforcement.
But Kwiecinski would also like the government to find a way to allow businesses with repeat customers to do what GoodLife is doing.
“It seems like a lot of unnecessary red tape,” he said.
The CFIB sent a letter to Prime Minister Doug Ford’s office on September 17 outlining these and other concerns. The letter requests a series of supports for companies, including training to reduce conflict; it also calls for a system “that allows companies to verify credentials only once for regular customers.”
In an emailed statement, Ford’s executive director of media relations Ivana Yelich said it is extremely important to ensure the rights of Ontarians to privacy and the protection of their health data, while helping higher risk companies and organizations to stay safe to avoid future lockdowns.
“As the prime minister said, vaccine certificates are a temporary measure and will be removed as soon as it is safe to do so,” Yelich said.
Reference-www.thestar.com