The Ottawa Police Service will make COVID-19 vaccinations mandatory for all members in 2022, Chief Peter Sloly announced Friday, after the local force got backlash saying the previous policy didn’t go far enough.
The mandatory vaccination policy will come into effect for all OPS members, both uniformed and civilian, on Jan. 31, 2022.
OPS board chair Diane Deans, who also released a statement Friday echoing her support of the decision, said the January deadline gives the force time to continue encouraging vaccination within its ranks without affecting service levels throughout the city by potentially taking unvaccinated police off the streets.
Nearly 84 per cent of OPS members are fully vaccinated so far, Sloly said, below citywide averages.
“The OPS has always been working to achieve 100 percent vaccination for all our members. That is what this policy is about – providing a safe, effective and responsive police service for the people of Ottawa,” Sloly said.
Members can still request formal exemptions based on medical or human rights grounds.
Global News asked the OPS what happens to a member who is unvaccinated after the Jan. 31 deadline, but was told those details are still being worked out.
“We are actively working with our internal pandemic team, OPS leadership, the Ottawa Police Service Board and our colleagues at the Ottawa Police Association to determine next steps for members who are unvaccinated beyond our deadline,” a spokesperson said in an email.
Global News has also reached out to the Ottawa Police Association for comment on the change in policy.
The OPS vaccine mandate could come into effect after Ontario starts to lift its own requirements for proof of vaccination, a move that’s currently set for Jan. 17 depending on how the pandemic progresses in the province.
The original OPS policy, which went into effect a week ago, did not mandate vaccinations for the members and allowed regular testing as a workaround.
Unvaccinated members of the force are expected to undergo COVID-19 testing every 72 hours before reporting for duty, but after the OPS’s limited supply of tests is exhausted, the cost of that testing will come out of members’ own wallets, Sloly said.
The lack of a vaccine mandate prompted backlash from members of the public as well as the mayor and some city councillors.
Mayor Jim Watson said Wednesday that he wanted Sloly to revisit the policy to align with the city’s own vaccination mandate for staff, especially given the public-facing role police play.
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“Police come in contact with dozens of people every single day. And for the life of me, I can’t understand why they would not follow the same rules that other public servants in Ottawa and, quite frankly, throughout the country are following,” he told reporters after city council on Wednesday.
“If you’re getting a public cheque, you’ve gotta get double vaccinated.”
Though OPS policies are not under city council’s purview, some city councillors expressed frustration on social media with the service’s vaccine policy coming into effect in three months.
Cumberland Coun. Catherine Kitts tweeted that the new policy was a “step in the right direction” but said she was “not overly impressed” with the Jan. 31 deadline.
Beacon Hill-Cyrville Coun. Tim Tierney said on Twitter that he’d like to see a special meeting of the OPS board to put more pressure on the police. Deans noted earlier this week, however, that the policy decision is not in the board’s hands either — it’s up to Sloly.
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