Iain Rankin announced his party’s plan on Monday.
The so-called “ScotiaPass” would count as proof of vaccination for Nova Scotians going out to eat at restaurants, shopping, visiting gyms, or going to other businesses.
Rankin said Nova Scotians might be more complacent as COVID-19 case numbers fall, but that the fourth wave “is swirling around us.”
“A lot of us may think we’re over it and we’re done and let’s carry on like we were in March of 2020. But it’s not over,” he said.
He pointed to case numbers rising in Ontario and New Brunswick, and the fact that Alberta is doing away with COVID restrictions as case numbers in that province rise.
“We can’t risk another lockdown in this province, it would risk many businesses,” Rankin said.
Rankin didn’t give many details about exactly how the “ScotiaPass” would work.
He said that, if his party wins the election, he will ask health officials to “dig into how we could most effectively use a province-wide vaccine certificate.”
How and when a vaccine passport would be used would “be determined by epidemiology and COVID-19 case counts.”
He argued a vaccine certificate would allow restaurants and theatres to be full of people “without having to worry (if) the person they are sitting next to is vaccinated.”
Rankin said it would also support businesses, keeping them from having to create their own systems to track COVID safety.
By Huddle Today reporter Trevor Nichols.
