File photo of Lethbridge City Hall. (Lethbridge News Now)

By Justin Goulet

City of Lethbridge implementing mandatory vaccine policy for staff

Sep 28, 2021 | 10:49 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – City of Lethbridge employees will have to be fully immunized against COVID-19 by November 15, 2021.

The city has announced its decision to implement a mandatory vaccine policy for all its staff. City Manager Craig Dalton remarked that the decision was not one taken lightly.

He said the priority is to protect the safety and health of staff and the entire community, and that “ensuring people are vaccinated is the most effective way to do that.”

Dalton acknowledged that some employees will be unhappy with the policy, however, he believes the risk of not taking action was far greater than objections that may be raised.

He stated, “we anticipate there may be some resistance to this announcement from a small number of staff but we also know, working through those challenges poses a much smaller risk to our organization then the threat of COVID in our province right now.”

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When asked what the city would do for any staff members who are unvaccinated or refuse to get immunized, Dalton said that would be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.

He noted that, “if there are staff who, for whatever reason, don’t feel they can comply, then we’ll have conversations with those individual staff members and there are a number of steps that we think we can take, ranging from working with them, sharing information on the safety and efficacy of vaccines and we’ll deal with those cases on a one-off basis.”

“The intent of this policy is not to terminate staff. The intent of this policy is to move towards mandatory vaccination and a state where all of our staff are vaccinated.”

A few weeks ago, the city initiated a mandatory survey asking employees to share their vaccination status, with responses due by October 15.

Full results are not yet available, but People and Culture Manager Jason Elliott said at this time, over half of city staff have responded to the survey.

He said, “in total, we’d be looking at about 1,800 staff, which includes all of our casual staff as well, that would be covered under this policy. Just over half have responded and of those, we’re at approximately a 95 per cent positive vaccination rate.”

The City of Lethbridge joins other communities implementing such a program, including the City of Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa and Toronto.

Lethbridge mayor Chris Spearman said, “I am pleased to see that we are moving towards mandatory vaccinations for city staff.”

“We know the seriousness of the COVID situation in Alberta and we need to be doing everything we can to keep our community safe.”

Prior to Tuesday’s announcement, the city had steps taken towards a mandatory rapid testing program. However, the city said the logistics and cost of moving forward with that model have “simply been too prohibitive.”

READ MORE: City of Lethbridge to implement COVID testing program for employees

The vaccine policy falls in line with other local institutions like the U of L, who have also moved to mandatory vaccination program.

Dalton added that several City of Lethbridge departments have already been mandated to become fully vaccinated, due to the nature of their work. These departments include Fire and Emergency Services staff, who are required to be fully vaccinated by October 31 in accordance with Alberta Health Services’ contract requirements.

ENMAX Centre staff have also been mandated to be fully vaccinated, while Lethbridge Airport employee’s direction aligns with federal and airline requirements.

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Dalton said, “we’ve been consistently as we move through this, looking at the impact on the organization, on staff and the public, and trying to make informed decisions as we move along.”

“This is a case of us continuing to try and make the best decisions that we can in as timely a manner as possible.”

He concluded that the city fully expects some blow-back from the vaccine policy, “and we have to acknowledge and respect that.”

“The response will simply be to work with those individuals, to acknowledge that they’re entitled to their opinions and their position, and our job is to try and work with all staff going forward… our message internally has been to acknowledge that there are different sides to this issue and different opinion – and that’s okay.”

Dalton commented that, “the longer we move through this pandemic, the more tired we all get, the more anxious we all get, I think the best thing that we can do, even when we implement policies like this, is to do it respectfully, to acknowledge each other’s position and to try and treat each other with a bit of kindness.”

More on the City of Lethbridge’s response to COVID-19 is available here.