Quebec announced earlier this week they plan on charging citizens who won't get vaccinated against COVID-19, for non-medical reasons with a financial penalty.
Justin Brattiga, Press Secretary for the Premier, commented in a written statement, “Alberta has not considered and is not considering bringing in any kind of non-compliance vaccine tax.”
In a recent town hall via Facebook Live, Premiere Jason Kenney added that this tax is against Canadian principles.
"We have a universal healthcare system which means that it doesn’t matter where you come from. How old you are, what your medical condition is, how wealthy you are or what life choices you make, you are guaranteed access to our healthcare system free of cost for medically necessary services," he continued, "Alberta will not follow the decision of Quebec that was announced."
Though Kenney said he respects Quebec Premier Francois Legault, he does not agree with how he is approaching this situation, adding.
"If we start going down that road then why would we not have a tax on people who are overweight or who smoke," asked Kenney. "You can say the tax on tobacco is maybe, kind of indirectly that, ok perhaps, but we don’t tell a smoker when they show up for lung cancer treatment that they’re going to have to pay extra for their treatment."
Kenny ended the discussion in the town hall by urging Albertans to get vaccinated.
Current active cases for the area are listed below case numbers can be found here at alberta.ca
As of January 11, 2022 there were 303 active COVID-19 cases in the City of Grande Prairie and 137 in the County of Grande Prairie.