MONTREAL — After months of opposition, the Quebec government is close to adopting the federal government’s exposure-notification application. 

The federal government launched its COVID Alert app in July. Quebec was notable in its disdain for it, with all three major opposition parties coming out against its adoption. A government report, published in August, didn’t recommend the adoption of the app. As recently as that month, the government said it wouldn’t deploy any mobile app, but would “be ready” should there be a second wave.

With that second wave already upon the province—Premier François Legault announced new measures Monday in a bid to counter the spike in COVID-19 cases, including a 28-day closing of restaurants, bars and casinos in so-called “red zones”—the government has been rushing to change course.In a press conference Monday, Health Minister Christian Dubé said his government was “working on it” and that Quebec could expect the app next week.  

The Canadian Digital Service developed the app on a framework released by Apple and Google, with assistance from the Ontario Digital Service. It was based on code developed by a team of volunteers from Shopify, and BlackBerry offered a pre-launch security consultation. Once downloaded onto a user’s phone, the app runs in the background and alerts the user if they’ve come in contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19. The app doesn’t disclose or share users’ medical information, and downloading it is voluntary. Though it is a federal app, it requires individual provinces and territories to adopt it, because it works in conjunction with COVID-19 testing administered by provincial and territorial public health authorities. Ontario was the first to deploy it, in July, with Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick and Saskatchewan signing on subsequently.

Several key Quebec government officials took in a demonstration of the app last week, and the federal government has been working with its counterparts in Quebec on the logistics behind implementing the app within the province’s borders, according to a source familiar with the discussions. This includes establishing the system of one-time codes to generate alerts should a user be exposed to COVID-19.

The Quebec government, in turn, has instructed its civil service to ready itself for the app’s adoption. “We’ve been asked to put things into place for the application to be up and live if everything goes through,” said a senior source in the Quebec health ministry, whom The Logic has agreed not to name because they weren’t authorized to speak to the media. The app would be working in the province “within days” of the government’s go-ahead, the source added.

As for timing, two sources told The Logic that Legault’s government will discuss the app with its caucus as well as opposition party members this week. However, according to a senior provincial government source, the government has two potential issues.

The first is its own members of the National Assembly, many of whom represent rural areas of the province where there haven’t been many COVID-19 cases. 

The other is Quebec’s anti-maskers. The movement, which regularly casts doubt on the existence of the pandemic, has risen in profile since the government enacted a mandatory mask law in indoor public areas in mid-July. Adopting the COVID Alert app so soon after the mask law “would’ve made the political line too noisy” and risked further stoking the anti-mask movement, the Quebec health ministry source told The Logic.

A recent research paper from the University of Oxford, Stanford University and Google on the efficacy of exposure-notification applications said they were effective even with low adoption rates. “In a model in which 15% of the population participated, we found that digital exposure notification systems could reduce infections and deaths by approximately 8% and 6%, effectively complementing traditional contact tracing,” it reads.