Long-term care providers across the country are looking to follow B.C.’s lead in requiring mandatory immunization for staff this fall, with Canada’s largest seniors care firms forming a united front on the issue.
With the COVID-19 delta variant on the rise, many care providers are going beyond what various provincial authorities have ordered and are taking additional measures such as refusing to hire new employees who can’t show proof of vaccination.
B.C.’s new rules require long-term care operators to collect staff and residents’ immunization status.
Starting Sept. 8, workers who have not been vaccinated must take a rapid test before each shift. For those unwilling to be vaccinated, B.C. is giving them until October 12 to do so. After that, they will not be allowed to work.
“This mandatory vaccination policy is extremely important,” Terry Lake, CEO of the B.C. Care Providers Association, told CBC News. “To take backwards steps with this new delta variant is heartbreaking.
“So we must do everything possible to protect those elderly, vulnerable British Columbians.”
The national coalition of private long-term care chains says they’re going to put unvaccinated employees on unpaid leave starting Oct. 12 across Canada, the same day B.C.’s similar rule kicks in. In the interim, many say they are not going to hire new staff who have not been immunized.
“We are optimistic our staff will continue to act in the best interest of our communities and will work to achieve full vaccination across our homes,” the coalition said Thursday in a statement. “As rates of infection once again increase in communities across the country, unvaccinated staff are more likely to bring the virus to work.
“The safety of our residents in long-term care and retirement homes, who trust us to provide the care and services they need, is paramount.”
The coalition is made up of major national care home chains, which say they’re going further than what officials have ordered across the country.
The national coalition includes some of Canada’s largest seniors’ living companies, including Extendicare, Chartwell Retirement Residences, Responsive Group, Revera, and Sienna Senior Living.
Seniors are pictured holding onto their family members while walking into a COVID-19 vaccination centre in Surrey, B.C., on March 8, 2021. (Ben Nelms/CBC)
During the pandemic, privately-run B.C. seniors homes were over-represented among those with the highest infection rates. That pattern has been seen in Ontario as well. And people in care facilities in general made up roughly two-thirds of COVID-19 deaths in B.C.
As a fourth wave of the pandemic begins, the country’s private care home operators are hoping to move aggressively ahead of autumn’s expected respiratory illness season, and stave off more tragedies.
But while many in the industry are looking to B.C. for guidance, Lake said there’s a loophole in B.C. that needs closing — the same strict rules for long-term homes don’t apply to acute care for seniors.
“Whether it’s on a company-wide basis, or more importantly, mandated by government, it’s the right thing to do,” Lake said. “But we need to extend that to acute care as well.”
Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry acknowledged her measures will impact unvaccinated employees, but said they’re needed to protect the lives of residents and staff.
She wrote in her orders that while she recognizes the rules will impact people who say they can’t be vaccinated due to medical issues, the strict rules are in place for good reason.
“Rights and freedoms, are not … absolute and are subject to reasonable limits … to prevent loss of life, serious illness and disruption of our health system and society,” Henry wrote in her Aug. 20 order for seniors care operators.
One of the care provider coalition members, Chartwell Retirement Residences, said 92 per cent of its staff in long-term care facilities and 86 per cent of staff in retirement homes have received at least one vaccine dose.
“As we enter the fourth wave, we believe strongly that the risk of the virus to our residents and the need to ensure that we do everything we can to avoid future outbreaks … requires us to do more,” the company said in a statement.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
