Ontario’s civil servants will have to be fully vaccinated or face regular testing

Thestar.com
Aug. 20, 2021
Rob Ferguson

Ontario’s civil servants and political staff will have to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 -- or face regular testing -- under a new policy for returning to their workplaces this fall.

A memo sent to the 64,000 members of the Ontario Public Service (OPS) on Thursday said anyone refusing to be vaccinated without a valid medical reason must attend an educational session in addition to getting regularly tested for COVID-19.

The directive follows Premier Doug Ford’s vaccine mandate issued Tuesday setting a similar standard for health-care, nursing home and educational workers with a deadline of Sept. 7 for implementation.

“Employees will be required to confirm full vaccination against COVID-19. All vaccinated Ontarians have been provided with confirmation of their vaccination status,” said Thursday’s memo from Deborah Richardson, deputy minister of the Treasury Board Secretariat.

“This policy is part of our ongoing work to keep the approximately 31,000 employees who are working in-person safe, and to support the safe, graduated and flexible return to OPS workplaces over the next two months for those who have been working remotely.”

The cabinet minister who serves as president of the Treasury Board said Ford’s Progressive Conservative government “fully supports” the move.

“I want to make it clear that the policy will also apply to ministers’ office and premier’s office staff,” said Prabmeet Sarkaria, encouraging civil servants to get vaccinated if they have not done so already.

“With a workforce of over 64,000, OPS employees are members of communities across Ontario. This approach will help protect the health and safety of the entire province.”

On Thursday, Ontario reported 531 more residents infected with COVID-19, the majority unvaccinated.

The province has struggled with slowing vaccination rates in recent weeks and chief medical officer Dr. Kieran Moore warned this week that rising infection levels point to “a difficult fall and winter” even though almost 75 per cent of Ontarians over age 12 have had two shots.

Moore said testing of the unvaccinated under the policy for health and education workers would be a minimum of once a week but could be done two or three times a week in areas with high rates of community transmission of COVID-19.

More details of the civil service vaccine policy will be released soon, officials said.