The President of the Kamloops Thompson Teachers Association says school districts that implement a COVID-19 vaccine mandate will likely lose some employees to districts that don’t.

Laurel Macpherson says that is why she feels it is unfair to leave that decision up to school districts.

“I think the government has probably taken a lot of heat for a lot of things and I think that they are looking at this and thinking it is one way they don’t have to take the heat for yet another mandate,” she told NL News. “We’re not opposed to a mandate. We just feel that if they are going to impose it, then just make it provincewide.”

“[Some] teachers will probably want to move someplace where they don’t have to have a vaccine, if that is the case. That is our concern is that it won’t be applied across the province equally.”

Last week, the Kamloops Thompson School District set up a committee which will decide whether or not to bring in a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for staff.

“[They’ll be looking] to start to dialogue with our staff what the implications might be looking to gather information before we make a final decision on that,” Board Chair Rhonda Kershaw said on NL Newsday. “We are in the due diligence process right now for that.”

That is after the province released guidelines for school boards to follow last month.

“We’re not pushing for a mandate. What we are just saying is that if the government wants a mandate in place then they should be implementing the mandate and not leaving it up to the school district to do that work,” Macpherson added.

“We just really feel that it is unfair to download it district by district.”