It’s day one of Ontario’s vaccine certificate policy and Doug Ford says he knows not everyone is not in favour. The premier adds his government hears those concerns but that the province’s highest concern is ensuring Ontario does not lose its hard fought progress in the fight against COVID.

“We can`t afford to shut down again or experience a sudden surge in cases like we’re seeing in other provinces and I truly believe these certificates are the best chance we have to  get through these coming months without having to move backwards,” said Ford.

He’s promising the certificates are a temporary measure only that will be used for as long as necessary and not a day longer.

There were some earlier glitches when people tried to access the provincial website to access their vaccine receipts. The error message “sorry something went wrong, we are working on it” appeared. On the same day you need to start showing proof of vaccine, the provincial portal to access those receipts was down temporarily for routine web maintenance.

Meantime, the Premier is promising Doug Ford is promising that all Conservative candidates running in next year’s provincial election will be vaccinated.

When pressed to explain why he’s only been seen publicly twice in eight weeks, the Premier says he didn’t want to get involved in the federal election.

But NDP Leader Andrea Horwath says Ford was missing-in-action during a critical 4th wave.

“Mr. Ford`s stint in hiding was at a time when Ontarians needed him to be here showing leadership.”

Asked about recalling the Legislature now that the federal election has ended, the Premier wouldn’t commit and says Ontario had one of the longest sitting parliaments in provincial history.

The fall session begins October 4th.