Staff at the City of Grande Prairie will have to be fully vaccinated, or provide a negative COVID-19 test as early as mid-January.
The policy, which was amended by members of council on Tuesday, to include themselves in the policy, as well as expand the eligibility of rapid testing to new employees in addition to existing city staff.
City of Grande Prairie Manager Horacio Galanti says they’re looking to make the plan as flexible as possible because the intention isn’t to mandate vaccination but to comply with guidance from healthcare experts.
“Comparing with Edmonton, Calgary… they really decided to proceed in a stronger way with mandating vaccines, so we really took a cautious approach, trying to learn from some of their mistakes,” he says.
“We really took the best of those policies, lessons learned and trying to be flexible… it’s a very reasonable policy.”
Under the policy, all staff are to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or provide a negative rapid COVID-19 test every 72 hours starting on January 17th, 2022. Rapid tests will be provided by the City for the first three months, at which time the situation will be re-evaluated.
Employees choosing to vaccinate must receive their first dose by November 30th and second dose by December 30th to be considered fully vaccinated by the January 17th implementation date.
Galanti adds council has also requested fairly quickfire updates on the policy, which is something he can appreciate in what he calls a very fluid situation.
“Council decided to do a check-in point at the end of January, and at the end of Q1, more in a formal, public forum, but at any time, depending on briefings from health authorities, we can bring amendments at any time,” he adds.
City administration says during the policy development process, the opinions of experts in the areas of Human Rights, Charter of Rights and Freedoms, OHS Liabilities, Privacy, Bill S-201: Genetic Non-Discrimination Act, Employment Risks, and Civil Liabilities were saught.
