Legault cautious about a COVID application

Unlike several of his ministers, François Legault is far from convinced of the usefulness of a tracking application to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Read also: COVID-19: Experts call for law for tracking application

The Premier of Quebec, François Legault, is extremely hesitant to support the deployment of a COVID-19 tracking application in the population. “It’s blocking the PM’s office,” sources confirmed.

However, several ministers within the caucus are convinced that the Bluetooth application, like Alerte-COVID at the federal level, works if there is strong support from the population. According to them, the application will help Public Health save human lives in the event of a second wave.

In order to see more clearly, the government hired the firm SOM to analyze the results of its public consultation which took place on the web this summer.

The latter would conclude that 75% of participants were in favor of safe technology to inform people who have been in contact with someone infected with COVID-19. The firm will also survey the population in the coming days.

It is following the recommendations of the parliamentary committee which concluded on Friday, the result of new polls and the analysis of the public consultation that the government will make its decision.

Possible decree

An answer should be communicated next week. If it is positive, Quebec will modify the legal framework, by decree, to regulate the free consent to the tool’s membership, confirmed the Minister of Digital Transformation, Eric Caire. Thus, an employer could not force a third party to download it because of a vagueness in the current law.

The minister promised that the government would not use personal information, geolocation, or data storage.

The federal application could also be modified and improved by Quebec, said the minister.

For now, Public Health is manually tracking those who have been in contact with people with COVID-19. It was done in their memory.

“This method is also limited in its effectiveness to find out if I have been in contact with people I do not know”, recalled Minister Cairo.

They oppose each other

In conclusion of the parliamentary committee yesterday, new experts in rights, science and information technology questioned the effectiveness and safety of such technology.

Moreover, all the opposition parties have concluded that they will not recommend the deployment of an application among the population.

“After hearing all the experts, it is unanimous, this application is not effective,” said Marwah Rizqy of the Liberal Party.

Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois of Québec solidaire argues that the application is “unnecessary” and “dangerous” and that the benefits are completely uncertain.

Initially, the Parti Québécois was open. He changed his mind. “There are many more disadvantages than benefits,” said Martin Ouellet, the leader of the third opposition group.

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