KENORA – Vaccinations for most education workers in the Northwestern Health Unit aren’t expected to begin until June, weeks behind a provincial timeline teachers unions and school boards had already criticized as too slow.
It’s a frustrating situation for unions representing education workers in the region, who say the provincial government’s talk of prioritizing education workers earlier this month hasn’t been backed up with much action.
On April 6, Premier Doug Ford announced education workers would be included in the Phase 2 vaccine priority group, as essential frontline workers who cannot work from home. At the time, the province said vaccinations for that group would begin in mid-May.
WINDSOR, ONT. For teachers, students and their families, this April Break is proving to be anything but. Now that the province has announced school will be reverting back to virtual learning after the break, the scramble is on. “I do not like it,” one student told CTV News, while a parent says he’s losing confidence in the government. “I just wish the government would be more consistent, get their act together. Because we’re going from guardrail to guardrail.” On Sunday, parents were told not to worry, that schools would remain open after the break, 24 hours later, the government changed its mind.
Education accounts for nearly a 42 per cent increase in Sunshine List April 11, 2021 Reading time: 3 min 30 s
By Phillip Blancher, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter Photo from Wikimedia Commons.
The education sector was the single largest growth area in reporting for the provincial Sunshine List. The annual report from the province was released March 19th.
The Ontario Sunshine List, which has reported provincial, municipal, school board and crown agency salaries above $100,000 since 1997, grew by 37,508 people in the last year. Some of that growth is attributed to the health care sector where the response to the COVID-19 pandemic has added positions and overtime.
Posted: Apr 11, 2021 4:00 AM ET | Last Updated: April 12
Shannon Akester, a teacher in Surrey, B.C., receives a dose of COVID-19 vaccine at the Surrey North vaccination clinic on March 24. Canadian educators in some regions are joining the priority groups eligible for shots, offering lessons for bringing this immunization drive to all school staffers.(Fraser Health)
The announcement of the return to in-person learning in the city came Thursday from Dr. Janet DeMille, the medical officer of health for the Thunder Bay District Health Unit (TBDHU), who credited an improvement in the number and rate of COVID-19 cases in the district in recent weeks.
Teacher unions worry about safety
But the decision to return to in-person learning came against the recommendation of the teachers union.
Seeley said he has been advocating for schools to remain virtual at least until all education staff in Thunder Bay are vaccinated, with the goal of protecting them against COVID-19 variants, which reports suggest are more virulent and more deadly.