On Thursday, the City of Toronto announced that it will require all employees to get a vaccination against COVID-19 in the coming days. While a similar move is not imminent in Kitchener and Waterloo Region, the municipalities could be headed down that path in the weeks ahead.
Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic told Global News that staff have been considering the idea for a while, but the ever-shifting COVID-19 landscape has made it difficult to come up with a policy.
“This is very much a live topic and one that we’ve been talking about over the past several weeks and monitoring what’s happening both federally, provincially, municipally and in the private sector,” he explained.
“It’s also something that is literally changing almost by the hour.”
On Friday, the Ontario Hockey League announced it would require all spectators and other attendees attending practices and games to follow its COVID-19 protocols.
With the OHL’s Kitchener Rangers playing out of the Aud which is run by the city, Vrbanovic pointed to this as an example of the rapid changes the Kitchener must adjust too.
“There are a number of areas where we don’t have clarity on what that means for them as a tenant, because they talk about spectators and other attendees,” he explained. “Who do they consider another attendee?”
Vrbanovic says the city is in discussion with other municipalities in the area and could have a policy in place within the next several weeks.
A spokesperson for the Region of Waterloo, which controls Grand River Transit, told Global News that it is developing a policy as well.
“Staff are currently working on a policy framework on the subject of vaccines for Region of Waterloo employees, including employees at Grand River Transit,” Stuart Gooden said in an email.
“An update on this is expected to be brought to Regional Council in September.”
Vrbanovic said the city needs to weigh several considerations including health and safety as well as constitutional freedoms and believes it would be helpful if the province provided some clear guidelines.
“There’s 444 municipalities in Ontario and the best thing that could happen is the province saying this is what’s required and this is the circumstances when it would apply and you don’t have 444 municipalities trying to figure it out on their own,” he said.
Comments