(File Photo/paNOW News)

By Dawson Thompson

City Wide Mandate

Proof of vaccination now mandatory in all city facilities

Oct 13, 2021 | 8:00 AM

With a continuous rise in COVID cases across the province, the City of Prince Albert is enforcing its own policy regarding proof of vaccination, in addition to the provincial mandate made on Oct. 1.

Residents of Prince Albert will be required to provide proof of vaccination or proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken within 72-hours prior to entering the facilities starting Wednesday. The motion was approved by councilors, 8-1 with councilor Tony Head opposing.

The following city facilities will be impacted, the Art Hauser Centre, Alfred Jenkins Field House, EA Rawlinson Centre for the Arts, Frank Dunn Pool, Margo Fournier Centre, Kinsmen Arena, the library, museums, and other city facilities listed on the website.

Representatives from the Canadian Union of Public Employees, (CUPE) local 160 which represents City of Prince Albert workers came to the meeting and spoke on the policy.

“We understand that the employer has an obligation to provide a safe workplace to all of its employees,” President Leslie Mourot-Bartley said at the meeting. “We are not opposed to public safety. We are opposed to it turning decent people who are valuable long-term employees into villains.

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“I may be wrong, but it seems like the purpose is to keep COVID out of the workplace. Neither the vaccine nor the test are perfect. If that really is the goal, the most reasonable thing to do would be to have the antigen test at work.”

Many councilors responded to the claim with frustration, saying they are put into a position where they feel the provincial government is not doing enough to curb the spread, and municipalities are left to create their own policies.

“It’s not against individuals,” Coun. Blake Edwards said. “Are we perfect in implementing these things? No. But, it is what we think is the best choice. To encourage vaccination because it helps curb the spread.

“If we can’t trust our health care experts in Canada who are encouraging us to do this, who can we trust in this world?”

Unanimously, councilors agreed that the city will send a “strong” letter through the Mayor’s Office to the provincial government’s COVID measures, which have left the city in the position of implementing its own COVID measures. The letter will be sent on Wednesday.

“The provincial government has the real-time data and has the information on health to best be able to deal with this,” Ward two councilor Terra Lennox-Zepp added.

There is no timeline for the end date of this vaccine mandate.

The next council meeting will be on Monday, Oct 18.

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Dawson.thompson@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @dawsonthompson8