In what has formed an agendum in the public domain, many Ontario municipalities are keeping COVID-19 vaccine mandates for their staff even as they lift the proof-of-vaccination requirement at facilities such as community centers.
It should be noted that the province’s vaccine certificate system covering restaurants, bars, gyms, cinemas, event spaces ended recently and several municipalities confirmed vaccination would no longer be required to enter their recreation facilities and arts centers.
However, reports have it that many municipalities that enacted policies requiring employees to be double vaccinated or lose their jobs are keeping those mandates in place.
In a statement, Toronto stated that despite the other public health measures lifting, its policy that employees need to be vaccinated isn’t being removed.
The statement said “Ensuring all employees, as well as new hires, are vaccinated is an important component of what the city is doing to help protect the health and safety of all employees and the communities they work with”.
Harping on the development, York Region’s director of corporate communications, Patrick Casey said maintaining the employee vaccine mandate is consistent with the municipality’s obligations under the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
The director said “As we have demonstrated throughout the pandemic, York Region continues to take every possible step to protect our employees and residents, including through our mandatory vaccination policy and strongly recommending all staff obtain booster vaccines as they become available”.
Reports have it that Ontario required certain sectors, including health-care, schools and post-secondary institutions, to develop vaccination policies mandating that – at a minimum – unvaccinated employees had to submit to regular testing.
The province’s chief medical officer of health, Kieran Moore had averred that he would like to dissolve those policies in line with the lifting of the vaccine certificate system, though he had earlier noted that discussions were ongoing and it would take longer.
It is imperative to note that many institutions, notably hospitals, developed policies that went beyond that standard, firing employees who refused to get vaccinated, and those facilities said their strict requirements would stay in place despite the province lifting restrictions.
Also harping on the development, the city of Windsor and the town of Clarington stated that their employee vaccine mandates would stay in place. On its part, the city of London said it was reviewing its policy, but hadn’t yet made any changes.
In a statement, Sudbury said it reviewed its mandatory vaccination policy in the context of the latest’s provincial changes and decided to keep it.
“Throughout the pandemic, we have made decisions that are rooted in the health and safety of our employees and the public we serve,” the city said.
It should also be noted that Ottawa requires unvaccinated employees to complete an education course about COVID-19 vaccines.
