As many as 27,000 public servants appear to have not yet declared their vaccination status to the federal government by the Oct. 29 deadline, leaving themselves at risk of being suspended from work.
The federal vaccine mandate applies to over 267,000 federal employees from the “core public administration” including the RCMP, Canada Border Services Agency, and many other federal services.
The federal government’s website states that 240,000 of these employees submitted their vaccination attestation by Oct. 27. In an emailed statement to The Epoch Times, the Treasury Board Secretariat said that an update on these numbers will be available on Nov. 3.
The
federal vaccine mandate was announced on Oct. 6. During a joint press conference with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland
said federal employees have until Oct. 29 to provide their vaccination status to their managers.
“Members of the public service who are not fully vaccinated or do not disclose their vaccination status by Oct. 29, will be placed on administrative leave without pay as early as Nov. 15,” Freeland said during the
media event.
According to the policy, those federal employees who have already received their first shot by Nov. 15 have another 10 weeks to get their second shot before they are placed on unpaid leave. Exemptions to the mandate are limited to religious grounds, certified medical contraindications, or any discrimination defined under the Canadian Human Rights Act.
When announcing a similar vaccine mandate for domestic air and rail travel at the Oct. 6 press conference, Trudeau said exemptions will only be granted in “a few extremely narrow exceptions, like a valid medical condition.”
Trudeau added
that any employees who try to falsify their vaccination attestation will face “severe consequences.” “The attestation for the public service is the first step. There will be severe consequences for anyone who is found to have been misrepresenting themselves.”
Members of Parliament and House of Commons staff are also required to be vaccinated when the new parliamentary session resumes on Nov. 22 with exemptions only offered to those with valid medical reasons. On Oct. 19, the governing committee of the House of Commons, the Board of Internal Economy (BOIE), banned MPs, staff and anyone who isn’t fully vaccinated from entering Parliamentary precincts.
Senators find themselves in a similar situation. On Nov. 1, the Senate’s internal economy committee announced that all senators, staff, journalists, and visitors must be vaccinated when the Senate returns.
