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FALL RIVER\/SACKVILLE\/BEAVER BANK<\/strong>: Two of three local councillors questioned about the Halifax Regional Municipality\u2019s (HRM) vaccine mandate for all employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 believe it\u2019s a way to ensure a safe workplace for all HRM employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Upper\/Middle Sackville-Lucasville-Beaver Bank Councillor Lisa Blackburn; Sackville councillor Paul Russell; and Waverley-Fall River-Musquodoboit Valley councillor Cathy Deagle Gammon were interviewed after HRM\u2019s announcement last week that its employees all had to be vaccinated by Dec. 15.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s also important to make sure our staff who work with vulnerable populations are vaccinated to keep the community as a whole safe,\u201d said Blackburn. \u201cI\u2019m glad our unions are working together with HRM on this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Deagle Gammon said she supports a vaccination policy. She is double vaccinated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI believe it, to be the right way to go,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I also understand that there are some people that for medical reasons or for personal reasons, are not going to vaccinate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe policy really needs to figure out how to address that and keep everybody safe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”31″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”127″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n In other professions, reports are of people leaving their jobs who wish to not be vaccinated. Blackburn and Deagle Gammon both say they have no indication that will happen with HRM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019ve haven\u2019t seen any indication that employees will quit in droves as a result of this decision,\u201d said Blackburn. \u201cI would like to think our employees would do everything in their power to keep their co-workers and the public they work with as safe as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She also hopes HRM management would work with vaccine hesitant staff to help them feel more comfortable getting their shots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Deagle Gammon said knowing a vaccine policy is coming may make a decision for some clearer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI do think, though, that sometimes when you know a policy is put in place, if somebody is thinking about, retiring or making a change, you know, it might be an impetus for somebody to make some personal decision,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate group=”6″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”34″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n Blackburn called it a \u201cmoral obligation\u201d to put a vaccine policy in place. Deagle Gammon agreed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHRM is a large employer with worksites spread all over the municipality,\u201d said Blackburn. \u201cWe have a moral obligation to keep our communities safe and our employees safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cVaccines and masks are the best way to prevent the spread of Covid. It\u2019s as simple as that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Russell took a more cautious approach when asked his thoughts on it then his two colleagues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m pleased that HRM will be coming out with a vaccination policy,\u201d he said. \u201cWe haven\u2019t seen it yet, even in confidence, so I can\u2019t comment about it further at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”92″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”84″]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [adrotate banner=”93″] [adrotate banner=”126″] FALL RIVER\/SACKVILLE\/BEAVER BANK: Two of three local councillors questioned about the Halifax Regional Municipality\u2019s (HRM) vaccine mandate for all employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 believe it\u2019s a way to ensure a safe workplace for all HRM employees. Upper\/Middle Sackville-Lucasville-Beaver Bank Councillor Lisa Blackburn; Sackville councillor Paul Russell; and Waverley-Fall River-Musquodoboit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3703,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,957],"tags":[10,1610,2150,2,1042,2670,25,2671,2558],"class_list":["post-24188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-news","tag-beaver-bank","tag-cathy-deagle-gammon-2","tag-covid-19","tag-fall-river","tag-lisa-blackburn","tag-paul-russell","tag-sackville","tag-vaccine-mandate","tag-vaccine-policy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}