Quebec’s Îles-de-la-Madeleine, an archipelago in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, has implemented a system where people must scan a QR code or show ID in order to leave its borders.

Visitors to the island will have to pay a $30 fee to obtain the QR code to leave the archipelago. Local authorities launched the program as a one-year trial, attributing the need for the “municipal regulation” to better understand tourism infrastructure.

The fee applies to non-residents 13 years and older and the penalty for not scanning the paid-for QR code is $1,000.

Îles-de-la-Madeleine, home to about 12,000 people, is the first municipality in Canada to require the QR system. A similar system is the minimum $50 fee (charged per axle) to take the Confederation Bridge from PEI to New Brunswick, for residents and visitors alike. The fee, as is the case in Îles-de-la-Madeleine, only applies when leaving the island.

The Quebec municipality, which can only be accessed by boat or plane, expects the program to bring in $1 million during its pilot year alone.

Initially residents were also required to show a QR code to leave, but officials relented after public pushback and said residents still need to prove their identity, but can do so with a driver’s license rather than a QR code if they wish.

Video footage of a town council meeting, translated by former Québec litigator David Freiheit (Viva Frei on social media), shows an exchange between a local resident, Jeanne Bourgeois, and the Îles-de-la-Madeleine mayor, Antonin Valiquette.

Bourgeois appeared before a town council meeting to put some questions to local authorities surrounding the new rules of coming and going from the island region.

“It’s very simple,” Valiquette told Bourgeois, explaining she will have “no fee to pay” because she pays property tax.

“You already contribute. You pay for the objectives of the pass,” he said.

Bourgeois confirmed, “You said it would require a QR code to get onto les Îles-de-la-Madeleine?”

“Not to enter. To leave,” he responded.

She asked what residents would have to show in order to leave.

“A driver's license with a piece of ID and an address on the island and there’s no problem,” he replied

When the resident pointed out this requirement is unprecedented in Canada, the mayor told her it’s just like getting on a boat, or using the subway in Montreal.

“I pay for the service to get on the boat,” she states.

“What law allows you to demand that we show a paper to enter a municipality?”

Despite concerns, Antonin Valiquette, the mayor of Îles-de-la-Madeleine, says that the QR code and driver’s license requirements are legal and that his biggest concern now is fighting “disinformation.”

“Combating disinformation among the citizens for whom the members of the municipal council and I work is what is important,” Valiquette said.

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