The Region of Queens will require anyone entering a municipally operated building to be double vaccinated.

Council voted to unanimously approve the measures at a special session Wednesday.

Mayor Darlene Norman says the aim is to provide a safe environment for staff and the public.

“Council all agreed. They all recognized that COVID is an airborne disease, strains are multiplying, and we need to take as many precautionary acts as we can,” said Norman.

Unvaccinated people may still enter the administration building to pay bills, fees or pick up permits or documents.

Proof of a first dose must be presented to the Region’s Safety Officer or staff supervisor by Dec. 31 and full vaccination needs to be shown by Feb. 15, 2022.

Any employee failing to meet the deadline will be placed on unpaid leave for 30 days.

If that employee still isn’t vaccinated at the end of those 30 days, they will be fired.

The policy applies to employees required to interact with members of the public, other staff, contractors, or access common building spaces in the performance of their daily duties.

Norman says the Region is taking this step to fill what she sees as a lack of direction from the province.

“One would have hoped that the provincial government would have made a policy that went straight across the board rather than leaving this up to individual municipalities,” said Norman. “However, they did not, so we did."

The Region of Queens new mandatory vaccine policy is effective immediately.

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