Who’s going to police the food courts to make sure customers are vaccinated? Restaurants say ‘not us,’ while some malls hire security

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This article was published 21/09/2021 (1824 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Want to sit down and enjoy that food court burger and fries? Get ready to show your passport to the mall cops.

Beginning Tuesday, Ontario residents must provide proof of COVID-19 vaccination for a wide variety of indoor activities, including dining.

While non-essential retail is exempt from the vaccine passport requirements, anyone dining at a mall food court needs to show their papers. Who enforces that is up to the mall owner and the food court restaurants themselves, according to a spokesperson for Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott.

“This could be at the point of service or at specific entrances/exits to the seated area of the food court based on their unique operations and setup,” said Alexandra Hilkene, who added that mall and restaurant owners might want to check with a lawyer to ensure their plans follow the rules.

At the Toronto Eaton Centre and other malls owned by real estate giant Cadillac Fairview, security guards are being posted at the entrance to the food court seating areas, according to Cadillac Fairview spokesperson Anna Ng.

“Our security teams will be stationed at the entrance of food court seating areas to validate visitors’ vaccination passports to ensure that guests planning to use the seating are adequately protected,” said Ng in an email.

There’s at least one double cheeseburger-sized hole in the way malls will be enforcing the rule, however. Anyone ordering takeout won’t have to provide proof of vaccination. That means they could theoretically then wander around the mall with their food, nibbling furtively as they go, even though they’re not supposed to.

“Our security guards will enforce this mandate as best as possible. We also have ample signage in place to discourage guests from eating outside of designated areas,” said Ng.

Knowing that malls will be taking on the passport-checking duties is a relief for the food court kiosks and their staff, says James Rilett, an executive with the Restaurants Canada trade association.

“They were very worried when the passport system was announced that they’d be in the position of having their staff being the ones to check. They’d need extra staff to do that, and there was the real possibility of confrontation,” said Rilett, Restaurant Canada’s vice-president for Central Canada.

Still, the concern hasn’t completely vanished for mall food court restaurants, Rilett said. There’s still too much uncertainty about enforcement, he explained.

“Until we get something in writing from the government, there’s still going to be some concern. The regulations aren’t at all clear on whose job it is,” Rilett said.

In a press conference Tuesday, Ontario’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. Kieran Moore, defended the vaccine passport system as “a balanced and proportionate response” to the risks of COVID, and cited the situation with out-of-control spread of the virus in Alberta as a good reason for bringing it in as the cooler weather arrives.

“None of us wants to go into shutdown or lockdown again,” he said. “In a pandemic, you learn as you go.”

Asked if customer capacity at restaurants, gyms and other venues can be raised if entry is restricted mainly to those who are fully vaccinated, Moore told his weekly news conference that transmission and outbreak statistics and patterns will be closely scrutinized over “the next couple of weeks” to determine if that can be done safely.

For now, the government is being “very prudent” by keeping capacity limits in place, Moore added.

With files from Rob Ferguson