Hello Councillors,
We are writing to you about your decision to add the vaccination policy back to the agenda for tonight’s (Tuesday) meeting (item E-1A).
We commend you for agreeing to re-examine certain aspects of this policy. After hearing from a few councillors since your last meeting, we are glad that some of you have seen the legal ramifications of preventing your fellow current and future councillors from serving in the democratic process based on a personal health choice they made.
We hope you will agree to at the very least exempt democratically elected councillors from this policy as is the case for most other similar policies across Canada.
But we hope you will also consider scrapping the entire policy for the sake of the municipality and its residents. We both attended demonstrations on Friday to support the Freedom Convoy along with hundreds of WN residents. In doing so we spoke to many residents and heard troubling accounts of how this vaccination policy will affect our town.
We heard accounts of over a dozen municipal employees who thought they did the right thing and got their first two shots but risk losing their job in the next two weeks because they are hesitant about getting their third dose. The policy you passed requires all staff and councillors to receive their booster within 30 days of eligibility. We've heard from double vaccinated municipal employees that contracted COVID at work, and now have natural immunity and don't want to take the 3rd dose. Many employees have been convinced to simply sign statements acknowledging this policy but felt uncomfortably pressured into doing so.
We heard that a majority of public works employees in the community of Verner had not received their boosters and may not want to. Losing these employees would severely risk the level of service for Verner residents who haven’t even had a voice at the council table for the past two years.
Most of these employees are choosing to stay anonymous for the obvious reason that vaccine-hesitant people are subject to unprecedented hatred in this town and across the country.
Again, we thank you for agreeing to continue the discussion around this problematic policy. As many experts and politicians have come out and said in recent days, you can still fully support vaccines but understand the issues around forcing them on people. The long-term issues regarding trust and logistical problems being created are not worth the benefits that a strong recommendation of vaccination has already accomplished.
Lastly, as we are all tax-paying residents who worry about unneeded legal costs for the municipality, we should not discount the possibility of legal challenges from employees and potential election candidates over this legally questionable policy.
Sincerely,
Dave Lewington and Réjean Venne
West Nipissing
