The Mayor of Kamloops says the vast majority of City employees are already vaccinated against COVID-19.

Speaking on NL Newsday, Ken Christian, says the vaccine mandate for employees, contractors, and volunteers announced on Tuesday will help ensure that all City workplaces, staff, and the public are as safe as possible.

“We have 950 employees, I would suggest probably 900 of them are already vaccinated. Why have they done that? Well, they’ve done that for their own health and the health of their families but also the health of their coworkers and the public that they serve,” he said.

Christian says the mandate – which comes into effect on December 15 – will also help ensure consistency in a number of City facilities.

“If you look at Sandman Centre for example, here we are trying to lobby Interior Health that we should be able to fill that building, but it is a bit inconsistent to make sure that you had 5,500 vaccinated fans and that the Zamboni operator or some other employee wasn’t vaccinated in the building,” he said.

Another example Christian said was the RCMP headquarters on Battle Street. Federal regulations require that police officers be vaccinated but Christian says there are also municipal employees – including IT and maintenance staff – in that building.

“To be consistent, I think a mandatory vaccination policy is a good idea,” Christian added. ” I think for consistency and ultimately for hopefully the end of this pandemic, this is a good policy route to go.”

The City expects to release its COVID vaccine policy with details of the expectations, timelines, options, and consequences by Oct. 31. It will also outline the potential options for employees who are not yet vaccinated.

“[It gives people not yet vaccinated plenty of] time to do the right ting, and also for us to look into what accommodations need to be made for those very very few people that are medically ineligible,” Christian added.