Environment Canada Suspended 1 Percent of Unvaccinated Federal Workers: Internal Audit

A nurse prepares a COVID-19 vaccine in Toronto on March 23, 2021. Cole Burston/Getty Images

Canada’s Department of Environment placed the 1 percent of its employees who were unvaccinated on leave, an internal audit shows.

Meanwhile, “the vast majority, 99 percent, attested as being fully vaccinated,” said the audit, obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter.

Of the 8,530 employees at Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), a total of 89, or 1 percent of staff, asked for vaccine waivers on medical or religious grounds.

Fifty-five employees at the department were suspended without pay for declining to disclose their medical status, said a Government of Canada webpage, titled “Audit of the ECCC Application and Implementation of the Policy on COVID-19 Vaccination for the Core Public Administration.” The audit was conducted between February and April this year.

Six of the 55 later received a first dose of COVID-19 vaccine and were reinstated during the scope period, the webpage said.

“The policy had to be implemented within 1 month of becoming effective,” wrote the auditors. “The framework was therefore developed very quickly.”

“Employees who were not willing to be vaccinated or disclose their vaccination status were required to attend an online training session on the COVID-19 vaccination within two weeks after the attestation deadline,” said the audit.

“After that two week period employees who remained unvaccinated or who did not attest or who did not obtain an accommodation request approval were to be placed on administrative leave without pay.”

The federal government announced on Oct. 6, 2021, that federal public servants in the Core Public Administration, including members of the RCMP, were required to confirm their vaccination status by Oct. 29, 2021. Those unwilling to disclose their vaccination status or to be fully vaccinated would be placed on administrative leave without pay as early as Nov. 15, 2021.

The mandate, which affected some 283,000 federal employees, was suspended on June 20. At least 2,560 workers were suspended, based on piecemeal payroll records tabled in Parliament, according to Blacklock’s Reporter.

Despite demands from unions that the suspended employees receive back pay, Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc told reporters on June 15 that the government would “absolutely not” do so.

Attorney General David Lametti also said June 15 that the courts would uphold the vaccine mandates. “We are on solid legal footing,” he said.

A civil servants advocacy group has launched a legal challenge against the Liberal government’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, with a trial starting on Nov. 28. The Quebec-based group, known as Fonctionnaires unis, or United Servants, consists of hundreds of employees working in various federal departments, including the Canada Revenue Agency, Service Canada, Canada Border Services Agency, and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

Isaac Teo and Lee Harding contributed to this report.