Council Passes Motion Allowing Only Fully Vaccinated Or Non-Positive Tested To Attend City Meetings
Saying they had to do it because of the Province’s new COVID - 19 pandemic requirements Council passed a motion in a 5 - 1 vote laying the groundwork to require the general public and City staff attending any public meeting to provide proof of vaccination effective October 1st.
“One of the obligations the Province announced last week was that any public meetings after October 1st, which is as we know they are presenting their regulations regarding mandatory vaccination or negative testing, was that open Council meetings needed to have proof of vaccination or negative test,” city manager Jim Puffalt said.
Puffalt said the policy had to be adopted before the end of the month as the next regular public Council meeting - scheduled for after October 1st - would not be allowed if the vaccination or negative test policy was not in place.
“To make the point that if people are not willing, can’t get vaccinated or chose not to,” he said people could then watch the meeting on-line.
Councillor Kim Robinson asked if the proposed policy would also include other City of Moose Jaw buildings or just Council and public meetings?
Puffalt replied yes.
“Certainly Friday night is the home opener (for the Moose Jaw Warriors) so at that point time you will have to provide proof of vaccination,” he said, adding “in regards to other facilities that is more of a masking.”
As of October 1st we are mandated to have a (vaccination) policy for the fitness centre and ticketed events. Everything else would fall out side of that. So the pool, as I said, would not fall into that,” parks and recreation director Derek Blais said.
Councillor Robinson pressed the issue asking if the City had to have a vaccination policy at the Yara Fitness Centre or the City of Moose Jaw did not require it?
Blais responded that under the Public Health Order a vaccination certificate is mandatory to access a fitness centre.
“It is not only a City of Moose Jaw Fitness Centre. It is (also) private fitness centres. Any type of fitness centre. The Province has mandated vaccination be mandatory,” Blais replied to Councillor Robinson.
“Does that worry anybody? Are we as a City starting to getting infringing on anybody’s rights to move about freely in our society? Creating a two-tier society?” Councillor Robinson asked.
He provided an anecdotal story about a family he knew in town who have had very serious reactions to vaccinations stating “they are scared stiff of getting any vaccination right now.” He continued that the family were an athletic family and have had a genetic response to previous vaccinations.
“And now we are going to tell them they cannot show up here…I think this is an affront to our rights and liberties,” he said. “It does not sound like the Province has given us a lot of options.”
Puffalt responded the City is obligated to follow the Public Health Order the Province has in place.
In the policy presented to Council the reasons given to required proof of vaccination or commonly known as “vaccine passports” was based upon providing a safe work place under applicable Occupational Health regulations.
“The Saskatchewan Employment Act and The Occupational Health and Safety Regulations, 2020 also require the City of Moose Jaw to take reasonable precautions to maintain a safe working environment. This duty includes taking reasonable and justifiable measures to protect employees from the spread of COVID-19 in the workplace,” the policy stated.
Council was told the policy would not require proof of vaccination for employees. The Province has now stated they will allow employers to request to know if their employees are vaccinated or not. It is unknown if the City will now require all employees to provide proof of vaccination or a negative COVID - 19 test as part of their employability standards.
It needs to be noted the policy adopted by Council includes the words “It is critical that the City of Moose Jaw use all available tools at its disposal to ensure that its workplaces are as safe as possible.” The wording appears to allow or infer the City the responsibility to inquire about all of their employee’s vaccination status.
‘We don’t have all of the details yet, but we do know we have to this in place tonight so we can have a public meeting in October,” Puffalt said.
“This gives me a lot of concern that we are overreaching and as I said it sounds like it is coming down from above so,” Councillor Robinson said.
Acting Mayor Dawn Luhning said the City had to do what the Province dictated.
“As a municipality we are creatures of the Province so we are obligated to follow the Public Health Orders and you know it is…I knew we were probably going to get into discussion about both sides of this tonight but quite frankly I have real concerns about the viability of our health care system right now,” Acting Mayor Luhning said.
“We have to do our part and no I don’t want to even to apologize to people who are saying that isn’t true,” she said, adding “that are the health care system is intact. That our health care workers aren’t working overtime . That there are distressing things happening in our health care system and we are (and) the Province is trying its best to waylay us out of this pandemic and try to get us back to some kind of normal lives whatever that means in this new world we are living in.”
“We have to follow the Public health Orders and honestly in some ways we got an email from the Police Chief (Rick Bourassa) ummm early on and it was quite a long list of restrictions here and that how it was going to work here and I thought to myself why is it an issue when we are in a health, a global health pandemic like this that people are affronted by proving they have done what they can to stop the pandemic,” Acting Mayor Luhning said.
The letter from Chief Bourassa, although part of the discussion and was used as a reason to make the final decision, was not in the agenda package and provided to the media.
“I know there are people that don’t agree with my stance but we are creatures of the Province. We are creatures of the Province and we will follow the Public Health Orders. And the businesses have to follow the Public Health Orders and that is the world we are living in right now...that is he way that it is.”
Councillor Jamey Logan said he supported the policy initiative
“We called on the Province to step up and they did. Now we have to make a policy and follow it. So we asked for the help and we got the help. Now we step up and vote and get this vaccine policy in place. Again this is all opinion based. You can say what you want just be kind. Businesses don’t want to do this anymore than you do. Support them. If you have to get takeout get takeout. But support the darned businesses and be kind to people,” Councillor Logan said adding it was not the people who asked for the vaccination proof fault they were simply doing their jobs.
Asked by Councillor Crystal Froese if the Province was reimbursing the City for the costs of enforcing the Province’s orders Puffalt said it was a question the City would be asking of them.
“I have family that work in healthcare in our City and I can tell you the overtime is nuts. Absolutely nuts out there,” Councillor Froese said. “The stress in healthcare is happening right in our city it is real and it happens.”
Councillor Heather Eby said “two weeks ago we were imploring the Province to help us out and help give us some direction because health is not our mandate. Health is a provincial mandate and they have given us direction and so we are responsible to follow that direction.”
“This is not fun. This is not fun for people at this table and it is not our decision right. And I know it is not fun for the politicians at the next level or the one after that. Whether we agree with them or not we are in a worldwide pandemic and that is the truth,” Councillor Eby said.
Councillor Robinson re-iterated his point that he was referring to if it was ethical to place a vaccination passport requirement on residents.
“I never at one time questioned whether our healthcare has been under stress. They have been under stress for five or six years. I also have family in the healthcare. I am talking more about the ethical, the ethical reasons why we do some of these things,” he said.
“We talk about asking for direction from the Province. That is true, but we can ask someone for direction to fix our car too but if they your best bet is to drive it over that cliff that might not be the right thing either.”
“I am not questioning at all if our healthcare i under pressure. I am questioning that we have various specious directives from all sorts of things and I am not sure making a two-tier society is in our best interests,” he said.
Councillor Doug Blanc waded in on the issue saying the policy did not mean a person had to be vaccinated because people who cannot or chose not to be vaccinated could attend Council and other meetings with proof they did not have COVID by a test.
“We are not saying stay away, we are saying provide proof,” Councillor Blanc said. “This is not our mandate. It is the provincial governments. We have been after the provincial government for some time to step up and do their due diligence in this health crisis and they finally did.”
In a 5 - 1 vote with Councillor Robinson opposed the motion was passed.