Pine Grove Correctional Centre. (File photo/Nigel Maxwell)

By Glenn Hicks

covid-19

‘Gov’t failures on COVID-19 jeopardize staff at Pine Grove’: SGEU

Jun 3, 2021 | 5:01 PM

The Saskatchewan Government and General Employees Union (SGEU) and opposition NDP are criticizing what they’re calling the provincial government’s failure to control COVID-19 and act quickly enough to vaccinate essential workers.

It comes amid the ongoing COVID outbreak at the Pine Grove Correctional Centre in Prince Albert.

Those correctional service workers who were on duty at Pine Grove between May 17 and May 31 have been advised by Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) to self-isolate until June 14. Yet, these employees must continue to work.

SGEU says vaccines came too late

“This is just an extension of the mishandling of the vaccination rollout by the Government of Saskatchewan,” Barry Nowoselsky, chair of the SGEU PS/GE bargaining unit told paNOW. “If they had listened to us months and months ago, when we requested corrections officers and other essential workers be made a [vaccine] priority, we wouldn’t be in this situation today.”

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Corrections officers, along with other essential workers, became eligible for vaccines April 30.

He said workers being told to quarantine and not be with their families—or be able to go about regular tasks like shopping for groceries and gas—could have been avoided.

Nowoselsky added the SHA had advised early in 2021 that staff and inmates at corrections facilities should have been prioritized for vaccines. He was referring to SHA identifying correctional institutions as “shared living settings” along with emergency shelters, group homes, and mental health residential care facilities, with staff and residents within these vulnerable populations be given priority early in Phase 2 of the vaccine rollout.

“The government chose not to do that,” he said. “It boils down to political incompetence in dealing with the vaccination rollout…and its failure to protect essential workers.”

He said the delay means some inmates and staff are still awaiting vaccinations.

A screenshot of a memo from SHA to Pine Grove staff dated May 31, 2021.

In a media release, the NDP Deputy Leader and Justice Critic Nicole Sarauer said she was shocked about what she labelled ‘the impossible situation’ corrections workers found themselves in.

“It amounts to workers paying the price for Minister Christine Tell and the Sask. Party’s failure to control COVID-19 and keep it out of corrections centres,” Sarauer said, noting the affected employees are mostly women with families.

In a statement to paNOW, Minister of Corrections, Policing and Public Safety, Christine Tell said, in part:

“Corrections and Public Health officials are managing the outbreak at Pine Grove Correctional Centre, ensuring that all staff and inmates are receiving appropriate care. We recognize the difficulty that this outbreak and associated public health order is having on staff and their families.”

The Ministry of Justice provided paNOW with a table breaking down COVID-19 cases and recoveries as of May 28.

COVID stats from Ministry of Justice

Tell added symptomatic staff are not being asked to continue to come into work. She explained as of May 28, 153 vaccines had been delivered to inmates at Pine Grove Correctional Centre, enough to administer a first dose to 77% of the current population. The statement added inmates in correctional centres will continue to receive vaccines as part of the age-based vaccine roll-out, just like members of the general public.

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glenn.hicks@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @princealbertnow