Ontario says all 64K members of the public service must be vaccinated or take regular COVID-19 tests

TORONTO — All 64,000 employees of the Ontario Public Service (OPS) will be required to get vaccinated or else submit to regular COVID-19 testing, the provincial government said Thursday.

In a memo sent out to OPS employees, the government said all members of the public service will need to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or advise of a medical reason why they cannot be vaccinated.

Those who are unvaccinated will have to submit to an educational session and undertake regular testing.

The policy is similar to that announced by Ontario Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore for health-care workers and other sectors earlier this week.

“Throughout the pandemic, we have taken every step necessary to protect the health, safety and wellbeing of Ontarians,” Treasury Board President Prabmeet Sarkaria said in a statement. “We continue to encourage all eligible Ontarians to get vaccinated. That is why our government fully supports the mandatory vaccination and testing policy being developed by the Ontario Public Service.”

While many OPS employees have been working from home since the pandemic began, the province is planning a gradual return to workplaces for those who have been working remotely.

The policy will apply to all public servants working in ministries or commission public bodies, the province said.

The province did not announce a timeline for the policy, but said that more details will be coming soon.

The move comes the same day as the Ford government’s deadline for members of the Progressive Conservative caucus to get vaccinated or face the boot. It also follows an announcement earlier today by the City of Toronto that all of its employees will have to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Oct. 30 and an announcement last week that all employees of the federal government will have to be vaccinated within the coming months.

Some 31,000 members of the OPS are currently working in-person and the government said the policy is designed to keep them safe.

“This policy is part of our ongoing work to keep the approximately 31,000 employees who are working in-person safe, and to support the safe, graduated and flexible return to OPS workplaces over the next two months for those who have been working remotely,” the memo to staff read.

The government also said that the policy will apply to the premier’s office as well as the offices of all ministers.

While some have criticized the policy announced by the province earlier this week as more of a "vaccine encouragement" policy than a mandatory vaccination policy, it does still signal a shift for Premier Doug Ford's government and the head of Ontario’s COVID-19 science table, Dr. Peter Juni, has called it a “good start.”

Ford has previously said that he does not believe that anyone should be forced to get a vaccine if they don't want to, but has encouraged all eligible Ontarians to get the shots.

Infectious disease experts have said that while Ontario will not be able to vaccinate its way out of a fourth wave due to the heightened transmissibility of the Delta variant, it remains critical for as many people to get vaccinated as possible to help mitigate the spread of the virus, especially to those who cannot be vaccinated, such as children and those with certain medical conditions.