Town of Ladysmith implementing COVID-19 vaccine requirement for staff
Ladysmith is the latest town on Vancouver Island to announce it will implement a COVID-19 vaccination policy for its staff.
The town said in a news release last week that it will require proof of vaccination for employees, as well as contractors doing business with the town and volunteers, such as members of the public serving on town committees.
The town did not specify a timeline for the new policy, saying only that it would be implemented "in the coming months."
"The COVID-19 pandemic continues to present serious public health challenges requiring community-level mobilization to ensure we are all doing everything we can to protect our family, friends and neighbours," the town's release reads.
Ladysmith says staff who are unable to meet the proof of vaccination requirement will be asked to complete regular rapid testing before work.
The town has 129 employees across five divisions. The town's firefighters are included in that total, but officers from the Ladysmith RCMP detachment are not.
"The town has provided its staff with education and resources throughout the COVID-19 pandemic on the merits of vaccination, as well as implemented additional health and safety measures to protect staff while carrying out their respective duties," Ladysmith said in its statement.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Bodies found by U.S. authorities searching for missing B.C. kayakers
United States authorities who have been searching for a pair of missing kayakers from British Columbia since the weekend have recovered two bodies in the nearby San Juan Islands of Washington state.
Amid concerns over 'collateral damage' Trudeau, Freeland defend capital gains tax change
Facing pushback from physicians and businesspeople over the coming increase to the capital gains inclusion rate, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his deputy Chrystia Freeland are standing by their plan to target Canada's highest earners.
'It's discriminatory': Individuals refused entry to Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
Individuals being barred from entering Ontario’s legislature while wearing a keffiyeh say the garment is part of their cultural identity— and the only ones making it political are the politicians banning it.
BREAKING Mounties will not be charged in shooting death of B.C. Indigenous man
Three Mounties in British Columbia will not face charges in the killing of a 38-year-old Indigenous man on Vancouver Island in 2021.
Canada's favourite sport to watch is hockey, survey shows
The 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs have already delivered a fever level of fan excitement in Canada.
Douglas DC-4 plane with 2 people on board crashes into river outside Fairbanks, Alaska
A Douglas C-54 Skymaster airplane crashed into the Tanana River near Fairbanks on Tuesday, Alaska State Troopers said.
Tom Mulcair: Park littered with trash after 'pilot project' is perfect symbol of Trudeau governance
Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair says that what's happening now in a trash-littered federal park in Quebec is a perfect metaphor for how the Trudeau government runs things.
'It's just so hard to let it go': Umar Zameer still haunted by death of Toronto police officer
“It's just so hard to let it go. I mean, everyone is telling me, ‘you have to move on,’ but I know someone is not here [anymore]. So I don't know how I will move on." That’s what Umar Zameer, the man recently acquitted in the death of a Toronto police officer, told CTV News Toronto in a sit-down interview on Tuesday.
NASA hears from Voyager 1, the most distant spacecraft from Earth, after months of quiet
NASA has finally heard back from Voyager 1 again in a way that makes sense. The most distant spacecraft from Earth hadn't sent home any understandable data since last November.