Experts weigh in on why a tax for unvaccinated individuals won't be coming to Ontario

Toronto health and law experts say that imposing a tax on the unvaccinated sets a “very dangerous precedent,” echoing recent remarks made by Ontario’s top doctor and the premier who stated that Ontario shouldn’t head down that path.

Dr. Kieran Moore, the province’s chief medical officer of health, put any rumours of a tax on unvaccinated individuals to rest at a news conference on Wednesday, calling the measure “punitive.”

While Quebec announced plans to introduce a financial penalty in the coming weeks for those refusing to get vaccinated against COVID-19, experts in Ontario have called the measure a “slippery slope.”

“This runs counter to our core commitment to provide health care on the basis of need, and not on the basis of people's individual risk status,” Trudo Lemmens, Scholl chair of health law and policy at the University of Toronto, told CTV News Toronto on Wednesday.

“If we start imposing taxes for being unvaccinated, will we start taxing people directly for other things?” Lemmens asked, pointing to penalizing an individual for not taking their medication as an example.

“This sets a very dangerous precedent,” Lemmens said.

While there is room for discretion when it comes to the tools policymakers can use to achieve public health goals, Lemmens said one of the key questions courts will ask is whether there is a way to achieve a similar outcome that does not infringe on individual’s rights. For example, by introducing more aggressive COVID-19 testing, or improving ventilation to reduce transmission.

As the pandemic unfolds, a growing body of data tied to COVID-19 is gathered and evaluated each day. Lemmens said the challenge with establishing a mandate is that evidence about the virus and vaccination is still evolving.

“In the long term, will we continuously adjust the mandates to impose additional vaccinations? How far will we go?” Lemmens asked.

Dr. Sumon Chakrabarti, an infectious diseases specialist with Trillium Health Partners in Mississauga, Ont., also voiced concern about establishing the groundwork for a “slippery slope.”

“Who is to say you can’t do that to other health conditions now?” Chakrabarti said.

With a growing portion of the population receiving COVID-19 booster shots, Chakrabarti said enforcing province-wide vaccination before defining whether an individual with two doses or three doses is considered fully immunized would equate to the “cart being put before the horse.”

“If you can’t even say what fully vaccinated is,” Chakrabarti said, “Mandating that is an evidence free zone. You’re flying evidence free.”