The unvaccinated will be taxed in Quebec

Quebec has decided to “piss off” those resistant to vaccination. The Canadian province, strongly affected by the Omicron wave, will implement a new tax in the coming weeks that will only affect people not vaccinated against Covid-19.

Called “health contribution”, it will affect “all adults who refuse to be vaccinated” because they represent “a financial burden for all Quebecers,” said Quebec Prime Minister François Legault on Tuesday. According to him, the 10% of Quebecers who have not received any dose of vaccine to date should not “harm” the 90% who have been vaccinated.

A tax of a “significant amount”

“It is not for all Quebecers to pay for that”, he hammered during a press conference, specifying that the government of the French-speaking province wanted this to represent a “significant amount”. “I understand and I feel this discontent with regard to the unvaccinated minority which comes, all things considered, to clog our hospitals”. The Prime Minister of Quebec explained that these 10% of unvaccinated adults represented 50% of people in intensive care, citing a “shocking” situation.

In an attempt to stem the new wave, Quebec announced on December 30 the return of certain restrictions, including the 10 p.m. curfew and the ban on private gatherings. In total, 2,742 people with Covid-19 are hospitalized in Quebec, which has about 8 million inhabitants and some 255 people are in intensive care.

Hospitalizations also continue to increase in Ontario, the neighboring province and the most populous in Canada with 3,220 people hospitalized (+753 in 24 hours) as well as the number of people in intensive care (477, +39).