Provincial flip-flops on vaccine mandates are creating confusion for businesses

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Talk about passing the buck.

As more provinces prepare to relax COVID-19 restrictions, our premiers are seeking political cover from recent social unrest by punting the divisive issue of vaccine mandates to businesses.

Provinces that include Ontario, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island are preparing to scrap proof-of-vaccination rules for indoor settings, such as restaurants, starting next week. Those provinces join Alberta and Saskatchewan, which ended their vaccine passport systems earlier this month.

The premiers of all those provinces are gambling that the deadliest days of the pandemic are now behind us. What’s more, their flip-flops on vaccine mandates are creating confusion for businesses, which still require guidance on how to keep their employees and customers safe.

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Yes, we have to learn to live with this virus, but let us not delude ourselves. COVID-19 remains a serious risk for businesses. Public health experts are warning that a sixth wave of infections is inevitable, in part because of the potential for new variants of concern to emerge over the coming months.

Those worries are leaving businesses in a sticky situation. Employers must take into account the concerns of vaccinated people, protect the privacy of individuals with medical exemptions and accommodate those who still prefer to work remotely. That’s precisely why businesses deserve straight answers from our elected officials on whether to maintain vaccine mandates in the workplace.

But instead of showing leadership on occupational health and safety – which falls squarely in provincial jurisdiction – our premiers are dumping the responsibility on companies and setting them up as scapegoats in the eyes of the public.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford is a case in point. He rebranded himself as a QR code evangelist in recent months, preached the virtues of going digital on vaccine passports and he even put pressure on companies to watch out for fakes.

But now his government plans to abolish vaccine passports on March 1, and is advising businesses it’s their choice whether to keep enforcing proof-of-vaccination rules.

C’mon, no business is going to demand that its customers or staff provide proof of inoculation unless it is required to do so.

“Business leaders are right now, my observation through my conversations, are taking their cues from the politicians and that constant flip-flop turns into a problem for businesses,” said John Moore, founder and vice-president of sales and marketing at Assurify Inc., which helps companies carry out vaccine mandates. “The more uncertainty there is, the more risk there is, the harder it is for them to react.”

Mr. Moore says federal and provincial legislators should collaborate on creating a replacement for the soon-to-be defunct vaccine passports. As he points out, not only do Canadians still need proof of vaccination for international travel, our hospitals are already bracing for the next wave of infections.

“If we’re not ready to build the permanent capability, the only thing we’ve got left is the blunt instrument of lockdowns,” Mr. Moore said.

He’s right. As a society, we should be doing everything possible to prevent more economic shutdowns, because such closures will prompt the need for more costly taxpayer-funded support.

There’s reason to worry about history repeating itself.

“There may not be such a thing as herd immunity,” Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, said during a recent news conference. “This is a term that I have not used for a very long time, but any vaccination level can help population levels of immunity.”

With those warnings in mind, executives are urging governments to work together and implement a single set of pandemic rules across Canada that define the “new normal” for businesses.

“Consistency in the application and publishing of guidelines will go a long, long way,” said Ferio Pugliese, senior vice-president of people, culture, health, safety and environment at Parkland Corp., a leading gasoline supplier and convenience store operator.

Such a co-ordinated approach would also bring “a greater level and sense of security to the people coming back to work because they’re seeing a level of consistency in application and it sort of takes the guesswork out of things” for businesses, Mr. Pugliese added.

His other ask? Give companies as much advance notice as possible about any future changes to pandemic restrictions to avoid “whipsaw events” in which businesses close and reopen.

For its part, Calgary-based Parkland has set April 4 as its return-to-work date for office staff, but it will not require employees to return to in-person work.

That type of flexibility is exactly the right approach for businesses now that provinces are putting an end to vaccine passports.

“We’ve spent two years being terrified of catching COVID and I think it’s going to take some time for people to lose that level of fear,” said Janet Candido, a human resources expert who is also the founder and principal consultant of Candido Consulting Group.

“I hear from people who are saying ‘I don’t want to go back to the office because I have to travel, I have to use public transit and I don’t know who I’m sitting next to. I don’t know if they’re vaccinated or not.’”

Businesses should also pay close attention to staff interactions in the office because vaccine mandates are proving to be a very divisive issue, she said.

“You’ve got to make sure you don’t have the two factions: the vaccinated sitting over there and the unvaccinated sitting over there,” Ms. Candido said. “Try to stay on top of people bringing their personal beliefs into the office and affecting the ability to work.”

Managing social tensions is tricky. But if the recent trucker blockades have taught us anything about managing risk, it is the importance of proactive problem-solving during this pandemic. Too bad that lesson seems to have escaped our elected officials.

“It’s easier to try and and address it before it gets really bad than it is to wait three weeks and then try and fix it,” she added.

Amen to that.

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