Large employers in talks to host workplace clinics
TTC, Maple Leaf Foods, UPS among firms seeking doses for essential staff
The Toronto Transit Commission, Maple Leaf Foods and UPS are among the employers in COVID-19 hot spots that have approached — or been approached by — the province about hosting workplace vaccination clinics, the Star has learned.
Others who expressed interest include Maple Lodge Farms and, as previously reported by the Star, Amazon. All are employers in hard-hit sectors who have experienced outbreaks over the past year, and are designated essential under lockdown guidelines.
It is part of a critical push to immunize vulnerable residents in communities disproportionately impacted by the virus. But experts are urging a workercentred approach where those in the highest-risk workplaces are prioritized — and have barrier-free access to vaccines without requirements like government identification.
“If we don’t have the vaccine going first to the people who need it most, the virus will beat us,” said Dr. Kwame McKenzie, the CEO of Wellesley Institute, a policy and health research organization.
Employers wishing to host workplace clinics must be based in a COVID hot spot, have a history or risk of outbreaks, and be willing to vaccinate employees who can’t work from home as well as local community members. They must also assume responsibility for organizing and funding the clinic, according to provincial criteria detailed this week.
So far, wealthier neighbourhoods in Toronto that are more central have higher vaccination rates than the city’s northwest corner, which has consistently had the highest rates of COVID-19 and faced decades of health disparities. Within atrisk communities, requiring companies to plan and pay for clinics could act as a barrier to vaccinating essential workers
who need the shot the most, McKenzie said.
“The big issue that we have at the moment is making sure that we’re vaccinating the right people, and any time we produce barriers, it’s usually people who need the vaccine least who are able to get over the barrier.”
On Thursday, drug manufacturer Apotex hosted its second vaccine clinic for around 340 essential workers at a manufacturing site near COVID hot spot Weston and Steeles, said its vice-president of global corporate affairs, Jordan Berman. Last week, Apotex hosted another clinic at its Etobicoke site, also designated a hot spot.
Berman said Apotex has not experienced any outbreaks but has seen “cases at all our sites across the province,” including a “surge in the past four-to-six weeks due to community spread.”
“As Canada’s largest pharmaceutical manufacturer, there would be a significant risk to the health-care system if we had to shut down operations because of a COVID-19 outbreak. This would have the potential to create drug shortages and have patients with unmanaged medical conditions exacerbating the burden on the health-care system,” he said.
Berman said the only cost to the company was “the time of
our team of nurses and employees to plan, co-ordinate and help operate the clinics with fantastic support from Humber River Hospital.”
In a statement to the Star, a TTC spokesperson, Stuart Green, said the TTC is “in discussions with the city through the Healthcare Leadership Table about what might be possible,” but further details are not yet available. Hundreds of transit workers have tested positive for the virus since the pandemic began.
A spokesperson for Maple Lodge Farms, where 31 workers at a Peel Region facility tested positive last year, said the company had applied to become a vaccination site but has not yet received confirmation. UPS, where 33 workers tested positive at its Caledon sorting centre last year, said it has been approached by the province but had no further details to share.
Public health units should be able to assess whether a workplace that is applying to be a site has employees that have the greatest need to be vaccinated, McKenzie said — meaning lowwage, essential workers who are in close contact with others and have trouble isolating at home.
“Not all workplaces are the same. The actual question is: does this workplace help us hit
our goals of getting the vaccines to the right people?” he said.
Labour advocates have welcomed prioritizing front-line staff but say they are seeking clarity from the provincial government on workplace rollout, as supply issues demand a triaged approach to administering vaccines in hot spots.
Tim Deelstra, a spokesperson for the United Food and Commercial Workers Locals 175 and 633, representing 70,000 workers in meat processing, retail, and other essential sectors, said the union “hasn’t had any specific details presented to us” about the clinics by either government or employers.
While the government’s criteria requires employers to be based in a hot spot to host clinics, some significant outbreaks are occurring outside of those zones: Cargill’s London facility, for example, temporarily closed this week after 82 out of 900 workers tested positive for the virus.
“We point to that to say, here’s a prime example of why we think these workers should be prioritized,” Deelstra said.
Some health units have already pursued their own strategies; in Niagara, authorities have started vaccinating agricultural operations that fall outside the region’s hot spot, designated as downtown Niagara
Falls. At least 2,100 farm workers have tested positive for the virus, the fourth highest number in the province, according to workers’ compensation statistics.
Restricted vaccine supply makes other interventions — like stricter lockdowns and paid sick days — as relevant as at the start of the pandemic, said Patty Coates, president of the Ontario Federation of Labour.
“Paid sick days is the first thing that needs to take place,” she said.
Coates said she has concerns about workplaces running vaccination sites, as it leaves out Ontario’s “world class” healthcare system, and relies on private entities to provide care that these environments are not set up to execute.
“It’s a patchwork of private and public health care that creates an ad hoc approach to care,” she said. “It should be public health that is providing that service to private employers, so that is concerning for us.”