By Ryan Young
May 11, 2021 | 7:56 PM
Workers in Manitoba will have access to three hours of paid leave to receive their COVID-19 vaccinations.
Finance Minister Scott Fielding adds that workers can take extended unpaid leave “if they need more time to travel to vaccination appointments and can’t work due to vaccination side effects.”
The paid leave can be accessed by workers each time they require a dose of the vaccine.
“We obviously don’t know if there will be booster shots in the fall but this would cover that as well.” Fielding said. “We strive to balance the rights of businesses and workers, so we do ask Manitobans to give their employers as much notice as possible and try to schedule appointments at a least disruptive time for the business.”
We need to get Manitobans vaccinated and we are, Pallister said in response to questions from the Opposition New Democrats about the vaccine rollout.
Tracking by the federal government has shown Manitoba consistently a few percentage points behind neighbouring provinces in terms of the percentage of the population that has received at least one dose.
The province has prioritized some groups of people for faster access, such as health workers, Indigenous people and residents in areas of high transmission, who have already been eligible at age 18 and up.
Pallister s announcement came amid more evidence the province is in the middle of a third pandemic wave.
Winnipeg Free Press
MIKE SUDOMA / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES
Finance Minister Scott Fielding said if Bill 71 (Education Property Tax Reduction Act) wasn t enacted, the planned mail-out of rebate cheques worth $248 million to an estimated 658,000 property owners would be delayed.
Legislation introduced by the Pallister government, that enables it to rebate 25 per cent of the value of education taxes to residential and farm property owners this year, has received second reading.
Legislation introduced by the Pallister government, that enables it to rebate 25 per cent of the value of education taxes to residential and farm property owners this year, has received second reading.
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Opposition parties have been joined by labour leaders in calling for the province to take the lead in a paid sick leave program.
NDP Leader Wab Kinew used the backdrop of the National Day of Mourning for worksite deaths to apply pressure on Premier Brian Pallister to put together a permanent paid sick leave program and a program that will grant employees three hours of paid sick leave to get vaccinated.
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“Making these investments now is smart for the health and safety of our community, but it’s also a smart investment from a business perspective because making paid sick leave available to workers … helps brings us closer to the end of the pandemic,” said Kinew.