LETHBRIDGE, AB – The City of Lethbridge is falling in line with a few other major Canadian cities in making COVID-19 vaccination mandatory for all staff.
Employees will have until Nov. 15, 2021 to get both shots. Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto and Ottawa have already implemented similar mandates.
“We fully expect there will be some individuals who don’t support this approach, and our job is to try and work with all staff,” said City Manager, Craig Dalton. “I think the best thing 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.”
Staff have been asked to share their vaccination status in an internal survey by Oct. 15. About half of the City’s 1,800 employees have responded, so far, with about 95% saying they’ve already gotten both doses.
Dalton adds that this mandatory vaccine decision was not made lightly, but the risk of not implementing the program outweighs the objections that some staff members might raise.
Officials did say a few weeks ago that the City was trying implement a mandatory rapid testing program. However, they’ve since found out that it would be too difficult and expensive.