Cobourg employees subject to vaccine mandate

By Cecilia Nasmith

The Town of Cobourg will expect its employees, volunteers and consultants to disclose (and provide proof of) their vaccination status, council voted at Monday's committee-of-the-whole meeting.

The finalized policy to go before council's regular meeting Oct. 12 will contain two timelines.

• Employees must disclose their vaccination status to the Human Resources Department by Oct. 22.

• Employees are required to be fully vaccinated with a COVID-19 vaccine approved by Health Canada or the World Health Organization by Nov. 29.

The motion included direction to staff to involve members of council within the policy.

Should the Nov. 29 deadline pass, Councillor Nicole Beatty wondered, what would happen with staff who remained unvaccinated?

“What we are looking at is, how do we encourage and support our employees to become vaccinated if they are able to do so,” Chief Administrative Officer Tracey Vaughan said.

“We would be looking at the mandatory-education component. We are working collaboratively with the local Medical Officer of Health, who is developing educational videos on the benefits of the vaccines. That would be our first approach,” she said, adding that it would not apply to those with medical exemptions.

The next step would be to implement bi-weekly testing.

“Is there an obligation to put this in place to comply with our health and safety, or is this just a measure we are taking because others are doing so?” Councillor Aaron Burchat asked.

Vaughan replied that the Occupational Health and Safety Act requires the town, as an employer, to do everything possible to ensure the health and safety of its employees.