P.E.I. Liberals ask why COVID-19 vaccinations aren't mandatory for education workers

The P.E.I. Liberals want to know why government hasn't made COVID-19 vaccinations mandatory for education and early child-care workers across the province. 

MLAs returned to the legislative chamber for the fall sitting Tuesday, where interim Liberal Leader Sonny Gallant raised the issue during the first question period of the session. 

Vaccinations for COVID-19 are voluntary for school staff and, as public sector employees, they fall under the province's vaccinate-or-test policy. This means employees who are not fully vaccinated need to undergo regular COVID-19 testing. 

But, Gallant said despite that policy being in place he's hearing from families that are still anxious about vaccinations not being mandatory. He said the province can be doing more to protect students, especially those under the age of 12 who cannot yet be vaccinated against COVID-19. 

"The rest of us should be taking all means necessary to ensure the protection of this age group," Gallant said. 

"It's clear government is opposed to mandatory vaccinations for education and daycare staff and, therefore, are not willing to use all of the tools at their disposal to fully protect under 12-year-old Islanders."

Gallant also said his party was concerned after finding out earlier this month that 18 per cent of the province's child-care workers were not fully vaccinated, and asked Minister of Education and Lifelong Learning Natalie Jameson what she was doing to get more education workers vaccinated.

"Do you think 18 per cent of child-care workers not fully vaccinated is an acceptable number?" Gallant asked. 

Jameson said COVID-19 and the way government responds to it is constantly evolving and the department is taking its direction from the Chief Public Health Office. 

She also said the vaccinate-or-test policy has been effective in Island schools and education facilities so far. The province announced the policy for staff at P.E.I. schools in mid-September, after a survey showed 90 per cent of school employees were fully vaccinated. 

"Our primary focus over the last 18 months has been our children, our families, all Islanders," Jameson said. 

"The vaccination data, that's continuously changing, our early years sector that number is increasing." 

Jameson did not specify how much the vaccination rate among school staff and early childhood workers has changed. 

Gallant also took issue with the P.E.I. Vax Pass being required at certain private businesses, where people are asked to disclose their vaccination status, but families cannot request the vaccination status of their child's teacher.