ARICHAT: Councillors are holding off on approving a mandatory vaccination policy for municipal employees.
Richmond Municipal Councillors unanimously voted to defeat a motion proposing a vaccination policy that would require all municipal employees – with religious, medical, and Nova Scotia Human Rights Act exemptions – to have both COVID-19 vaccinations.
During the regular monthly meeting on March 21, Deputy Warden Melanie Sampson questioned whether the policy is necessary now that the provincial government ended the state of emergency.
“We already have all the work put in to drafting it, and I think we’ve got to a place where we’re pleased with the draft,” she told council. “I don’t feel like it’s necessary right now, and I feel like if it became necessary, even in a short amount of time, we could move it through pretty quickly, within a month, to get it approved, if we need it to have it.”
District 2 Councillor Michael Diggdon suggested the policy would be “useless” since public health restrictions were lifted.
“If we pass it, then what we’re doing is restricting possibly the people applying for positions,” he said. “We could lose out on a great candidate because we have this vaccination policy in place that has been lifted by the province itself. I know the province has allowed workers to return back to work that are unvaccinated. All along we’ve been following the provincial guidelines.”
District 1 Councillor Shawn Samson suggested that if the situation worsens, council can revisit the policy at that time.
“For us to adopt this tonight, and then just have someone have 60 days left to comply, when in reality you don’t have to comply as of today. I would put it on the back burner for now,” he said. “If things go off the rails in the future, then for sure, we can look back at it.”
Pointing that some municipalities are looking at strengthening their vaccination policies, some are holding off on theirs for the time being, and not many others have withdrawn or weakened their policies, District 5 Councillor Brent Sampson wants council to keep its options open if the process of approving another policy takes too long.
“That way, I guess, it’s sort of in the queue if things are to change in a negative light, and we have to reintroduce it,” he noted. “That would be my only concern that it could take us another couple of months, if things were to change in a negative light. I’ll be honest with you, I’m probably leaning more towards not, but that would be the only thing that would make my reconsider if we had it available to us at least, it might be there as a safeguard.”
Warden Amanda Mombourquette agreed that the policy can be revisited.
“My understanding from public health is that they are still recommending that people get vaccinated,” she added. “It sounds like a majority of council is looking to maybe put the brakes on this.”