No discussion on mandatory vaccines for Queens staff

Region of Queens Mayor Darlene Norman. Photo Ed Halverson

No word yet on whether or not Region of Queens employees will be have to be vaccinated.

Halifax is the largest municipality in Nova Scotia to join the federal and provincial governments in requiring employees to be vaccinated in order to come to work.

Region of Queens mayor Darlene Norman says directives on how to keep people safe during the pandemic are constantly evolving and council hasn’t yet addressed the issue.

Norman says a municipality like Halifax has many more employees and are better positioned to deal with gaps in service created by workers who may have to be put off work.

“We’re all small municipality. It’s not like there’s a lot of people lined up for work,” said Norman. “But what if we lost some of our key people that keep our operations going?”

Norman doesn’t have an answer for that question and is looking to see if the provincial department of municipal affairs is going to provide any direction.

An email response from department spokesperson Krista Higdon indicates the province is leaving the decision up to individual municipalities.

Higdon writes, “As an independent level of government, municipalities have the right to decide whether to adopt their own vaccine policies, although we would encourage it. We understand that a number of municipalities across Nova Scotia have already implemented their own policy in this regard, and many others are in the process of doing so.

Municipalities, like all employers in Nova Scotia, must decide what kind of vaccine policy is appropriate for their employees, communities, and the people they serve.  In implementing a vaccine policy, we expect that municipalities will adhere to the minimum standards established by the provincial policy and the various public health directives. Policies need to take legal and ethical implications into consideration.”

That leaves Queens and other smaller municipalities to figure it out.

“Our acting CAO has been checking recently with other municipalities to see what going on and [they do] not yet have a policy, not yet had that discussion,” said Norman.

She says in the meantime, the Region of Queens will continue to follow all public health orders to keep the public and their employees safe.

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