Ken Anderson first started working in the restaurant business in North Bay back in the 1990s.
Now, the General Manager at The Station Tap House and Steak Company in North Bay, Anderson is not looking forward to the start of a new identification process which will include vaccine passports within his restaurant.
"Never into my wildest dreams did I ever think I would be doing this in a restaurant," Anderson stated about the new restaurant rules.
Anderson knows it won't be easy and he does not want any of his less experienced staff to take the heat from angry patrons because of vaccine passports.
"To put those 16-year-old kids at the front door doing this; I normally work day shifts, I thought about it and no way in hell am I going to let my young 23-year-old host or hostess at the front door to deal with this for the first couple of days, So that is why I am going to be working nights to make sure if anybody is going to get yelled at it is going to be me, I have been yelled at before, and I will get yelled at again I know but I have got big shoulders."
See related: Going to a restaurant or a gym? Vaccine Passports take effect today
From a personal perspective, Anderson says having to follow through with these new measures will not be easy.
"I have to check that it has been 14 days so it will be Sept 8 or earlier for today and then I have to see a piece of government identification; it doesn't have to be a photo, so health card, drivers license, birth certificate, passport and check the dates on the doses then they can come in," explained Anderson.
However, the new protocols are confusing.
"I am a fully vaccinated individual but I do not fully agree with this passport thing," he said, noting that this is his personal opinion, not the staff and ownership.
"I find it really hard that some of the people that don't support vaccine passports were the first people to support us when our doors reopened. The thing that bugs me is they cannot come in because they don't have vaccines, then how is it okay for a staff member to not have any vaccines but be able to work in the restaurant? It is a very tricky thing this Ontario government is doing right now in terms of who is allowed in and who is not."
Anderson says don't take it out on the restaurant workers.
"I know it is going to happen, the sad thing is it is probably somebody I know very well but we did not put these new rules in place. We are just asked to enforce them," he said.
"I hope it is over sooner than later. I really do."
