Brampton mayor Brown has ‘no intention’ to fire unvaccinated city employees, claims Hamilton councillor
Published February 23, 2022 at 9:21 pm
Hoping Hamilton will “follow suit,” a city councillor claimed Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown told her that his city will not fire municipal employees who fail to verify their COVID-19 vaccination status.
Ward 7 Coun. Esther Pauls, one of two councillors who voted against the mandatory vax policy for City of Hamilton employees six weeks ago, made two such claims regarding Brown in a council meeting on Wednesday (Feb. 23). Pauls said that while posing questions to city Emergency Operations (EOC) director Jason Thorne about whether the city will conduct a “wholesome review” of the employee vaccination policy. It takes effect on May 31, after having been adopted in a 12-2 council vote on Jan. 12.
“I have had quite a few phone calls and a number of e-mails from concerned staff — will we be doing a wholesome review about our vaccination policies for staff, coming up?” Pauls asked Thorne. “As you know, May 31 is the deadline. We’ve got lots of time to discuss it, and I’m wondering what’s the thought? It’s March 1, we’re (the Ontario government) lifting the vaccination policy, that there’s no more vaccination requirement. I heard Patrick Brown, this morning, say everything is lifted as of March 1, they’re not firin’ anybody from their office, so when is that gonna be a wholesome review, that we can do?”
To that point, Thorne had addressed how the EOC will respond to the province’s widely anticipated March 1 lifting of many COVID-19 protections in indoor settings. Thorne had just told Ward 6 Coun. Tom Jackson that any protections lifted for businesses would also be lifted in city facilities such as arenas and museums.
The province has not discussed removing masking as early as March 1, which is six days away. But on Wednesday morning, Brown called on the province to lift masking requirements in Ontario schools.
“We are looking at the impacts of the (potential) provincial announcement on a number of city policies, procedures, and bylaws,” Thorne replied to Pauls. “We, of course, still have our city masking bylaw, we still have our city physical distancing bylaws, So we’ll be assessing what the impacts are on those. For now, we’re not contemplating any changes to those municipal bylaws, those municipal policies, outside of what I just mentioned in terms of the vaccination requirement for the public accessing those city facilities.”
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Pauls replied, “And when will we talk about the May 31 deadline? Will we have an opportunity to talk about that? ‘Cause I get those calls all the time and I need to answer.”
‘I actually talked to Patrick Brown … I hope we follow suit’
Cities in Ontario are creatures of the provincial government. Thorne, who is also Hamilton’s general manager of economic development and planning, told Pauls that Hamilton has to wait for provincial direction.
“At this time we haven’t been contemplating changes to any of those policies and bylaws,” Thorne said. “Like I say, we have to wait to see what the province is coming back with. Ultimately, if there’s going to be a change to any of those policies or bylaws, those do have to come in front of council. Those were council-adopted bylaws, so they would have to be brought in front of you for any changes.”
Pauls replied, “All right. And I hope we do, I hope we do, I hope we have a second look at what we are mandating by May 31. Because — I looked — I actually talked to Patrick Brown, from Brampton, and he is lifting, he has no intention of ever firing anybody for the mandate. So I hope we follow suit.”
Pauls and Ward 14 Coun. Terry Whitehead (who was absent on Wednesday) voted against the policy on Jan. 12. Part of Pauls’s reasoning for her vote was that she believed that the Ontario government should make such mandates.
“We all know vaccination works, but I really am concerned about our policy, especially when we know that the province is responsible for this,” she said at that time. “And I think we should rely on them, and let them make the mandate.”
Pauls added that she would have voted for the policy if it was “guaranteed” that Omicron would disappear if 100 per cent of Canadians, or Hamilton residents, were vaccinated.
“Because it’s a moving target for me, I really have a hard time understanding it,” she said.
Ninety-seven per cent of City of Hamilton employees have verified that they are fully vaccinated. (Members of Hamilton Police Service are not covered by the incoming policy, nor are they counted in that figure.)
On Tuesday, both Medical Officer of Health Dr. Elizabeth Richardson and Mayor Fred Eisenberger each said that vaccination requirements have always been of a piece with having, in the mayor’s phrasing, “a safe and healthy workplace.”
The latest City of Hamilton vaccination status report affirms that an unvaccinated person in Hamilton is over 10 times more likely than a person with three doses to end up being hospitalized due to COVID-19. They are over 19 times more risk of ending up in intensive care, and the risk of death is 5.4 times as great, although those numbers are based on preliminary data.
Per ontario.substack.com, the fully vaccinated population in Ontario is more than four times larger than the population that unvaccinated, partially vaccinated, unknown status. When it comes to severity factors, though, the latter group accounts for almost half of the COVID-19 hospitalizations (48.28 per cent) and over two-thirds of ICU admissions (71.79%).
Hamilton was the epicentre of the now-receding, Omicron variant-driven fifth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Six weeks ago, when council adopted the policy for City of Hamilton employees, there were 92 listed active outbreaks in Hamilton.
There are currently five.
Brampton likely has higher vaccination uptake than Hamilton. The data from Peel Public Health, whose coverage areas includes Brampton, Mississauga and Caledon, shows that 91.3 per cent of residents who are at least 12 years old have received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Only 83.2 per cent of the 12-and-up population of Hamilton have had two doses.
Last Thursday, ahead of Family Day weekend, the rate of Hamilton schools where at least 20 per cent of students and staff were absent was double the rate of Brampton and Mississauga. Ontario schools only report absences to the province, so the degree to which COVID-19 played a factor is unknown.
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