Oakville asks Province to allow remote issuance of marriage licenses

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Published October 21, 2021 at 5:28 pm

Oakville wants the Province to change the rules to enable remote oath taking for the purpose of issuing marriage licenses to unvaccinated couples.

Currently anyone wanting to get married or pick up a marriage license at Town Hall has to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

Some residents have complained that they have been unable to get marriage licenses due to regulations that all Town-operated facilities require both proof of identity and vaccination status before being allowed in.

“In a sense, we’ve all been getting lots of feedback from members of the public with respect to the COVID rules in Town Hall and the lack of ability to secure marriage licenses from our Clerk’s Department due to people’s vaccination hesitancy,” said Councillor Jeff Knoll, who along with fellow Ward 5 Councillor Marc Grant put forth the motion to Province.

“This resolution essentially is our request to the Province of Ontario to facilitate a rule change that we’re able to provide access to marriage licenses externally to Town Hall in terms of swearing in.”

The passed motion requests the office of the Registrar General to provide a framework to marriage issuers to enable remote oath taking for the purpose of issuing marriage licenses to couples that do not have proof of vaccination.

“It’s fairly a simple matter,” Knoll said. “If we’re able to achieve this it’s going to solve a lot of certain angst in the community and with your support we’ll send this motion off with Godspeed to get the Premier and his colleagues support for it.”

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