PRESS RELEASE: Some concerns met with amended bylaw as committee caves to public pressure, community will continue to fight bylaw
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 7, 2021
Dr. Vera Etches, MD, CCFP, MHSc, FRCPC
Medical Officer of Health
Ottawa Public Health
100 Constellation Drive
Ottawa, ON
K2G 6J8
[email protected]
Dear Dr. Etches,
We are writing to you in response to last Monday’s shocking revelations about working conditions at the Amazon warehouse in Ottawa (“Amazon employee describes lax enforcement of COVID-19 precautions at Ottawa warehouse,” CBCNews, May 31, 2021). As we did in our letter to you in April, we are urging you to properly assume your responsibilities as Medical Officer of Health and to use your authority to ensure that everything that can be done is done for those most at risk from this dangerous disease.
It is clear from the reports of consistently lax enforcement at the Amazon facility that the safety of workers is being sacrificed in order to ease the burden on employers and that Ottawa Public Health has not been doing enough to prevent this endangerment. Reports of repeated outbreaks, a lack of transparency with workers, and a lack of remedial action to control those outbreaks are disturbing, to say the least. Other jurisdictions, here in Ontario and in other provinces, have taken a much more transparent approach to informing workers and the public of workplace outbreaks.
Employees have a right to know when their workplace safety has been compromised. You have an obligation to help them. We are asking you to intervene in these situations and ensure that:
The end of COVID-19 is in sight. But that should not be used as an excuse for relaxing pressure on employers to behave ethically and responsibly when it comes to the health and well-being of their employees. Horizon Ottawa is urging you to apply yourself to this glaring and alarming problem. It is your duty to help Ottawa’s workers make it through this pandemic as untouched by illness and tragedy as is humanly possible. Your office has the authority to demand and ensure safe working conditions for essential and at-risk workers.
There are already enough voices speaking up for economic interests of employers. We need your voice to ring out loudly, clearly, and powerfully in support of Ottawa workers and their families.
Sincerely,
The Membership of Horizon Ottawa
cc Members of the Ottawa Board of Health
Ottawa City Councillors
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
City Staff have released their Feasibility Assessment on the proposed Bubble By-law for review by council next month. The memo echoes some of our concerns about the by-law, including infringing on Charter rights and opening the city up to legal challenges. It sparked additional concerns for us at Horizon Ottawa and the Defend Dissent Coalition.
“Tewin” is a proposed development near the village of Carlsbad Springs. The developer and partial landowner for the site is Taggart, one of the city’s largest developers and a major donor in the 2022 municipal election.