With municipal administration recently suspending the remainder of its vaccination and testing policy, a North Kent councilor pulled her motion on the issue Monday night.
count. Rhonda Jubenville had planned to ask that the rules, which had still applied to new hires, be removed.
However, Chatham-Kent’s executive management team had already made the change as of Dec. 7, she stated while withdrawing her motion.
As the motion was pulled, there was no discussion at the table. Jubenville entered another notice of motion later in the evening, which will be voted on in the new year, asking for a co-operative approach on any similar rules potentially impacting municipal employees.
She requested that any further vaccination policies be “decided upon collaboratively between Chatham-Kent council and the Chatham-Kent executive management team through consultation and majority agreement, through dialogue and council votes.”
Last week, council voted to suspend the vaccination and testing policy for councilors and committee members.
Council initially approved its vaccination and testing policy in October 2021. The rules for staff were already suspended this year for existing employees.
Administration had previously stated that Chatham-Kent’s policy was more lenient than some other jurisdictions since it allowed a provision for testing instead of vaccination for those who wished.
After Monday’s meeting, Cathy Hoffman, general manager of corporate services and chief human resources officer, told The Daily News the original plan was to review the rules in January for new hires, given the holidays and higher rates of respiratory illness.
However, with council voting to suspend its policy, she said the aim was to “time this out together” and see if there were alternative measures.
These include staff working from home whenever possible, or using vacation time during the holiday season.
“We decided to take a look and see if there was an alternate way that we could still achieve our same goals,” Hoffman said.
The usual precautions also remain, she said, such as asking staff to stay home if unwell, and to mask upon their return for a period of time.
Monday was the last council meeting of the year, with the next one slated for Jan. 16.