As cases surge, Northern Ontario cities say COVID-19 contingencies in place

Sudbury -

As Ontarians continue to deal with the latest surge of COVID-19, some of the region's largest employers – municipalities -- are shoring up their contingency plans.

Absences are up in some communities, but municipal leaders said this week plans are in place to ensure essential services are maintained.

"There are contingency plans in place for operations and really we've had them in place since the beginning of the pandemic," said Sault Ste. Marie CAO Malcolm White.

"Particularly with the first and second wave, before we had vaccines available, before we knew as much as we do know about COVID and what we needed to do to prevent transmission, we needed to have plans in place."

"We don't have a lot of absences within the corporate staff that are due to COVID infections, so we aren't seeing that yet but we do expect to see more," White added.

It's a sentiment shared in cities like Sudbury and North Bay, which have been eyeing the numbers, looking for trends and redeploying some of its workforce to fill shortages.

"We're doing well, we are seeing a slight uptick in absences probably just like everyone else," said North Bay Mayor Al McDonald.

"Since Day 1, we've made the safety of our citizens and staff the No. 1 priority and we put in all the healthcare protocols and precautions from Day 1. We have our staff working from the office or from home depending on the services they are providing."

The comments come as mayors from larger cities like Toronto are vowing to keep essential services in place.

Winnipeg had to declare a state of emergency Wednesday after its police service reported 90 cases within its ranks and another 170 personnel booking off COVID-related time.

McDonald said if cases continue to grow and affect vital services, he wouldn't hesitate to do the same.

"If we were to run into any difficulties at all, I wouldn't hesitate to call a state of emergency and ask for provincial or federal help," he said.

But the mayor said the city has a responsibility to do everything in its power to address the issues itself before resorting to that stage.

Sudbury city officials met Thursday morning with their first responders and public health counterparts to share the latest COVID-19 data.

Officials said they're watching the numbers closely as part of their control group, adding that they are already shifting some personnel.

It's a challenging situation for the city because it also has more social services to protect than some of its northern Ontario counterparts, including the city-owned long-term care home, Pioneer Manor.

"It's been a concern since March of 2020," said Kevin Fowke, the city's GM of corporate services.

"We're trying to do some measured planning to ensure the continued delivery of public services, if and when there is a catastrophic call that 20 or 30 staff are missing from a given area, we'll have plans in place."

Essential services include water, wastewater services, long-term care, transit to an extent and those other 24 hour services that the community depends upon.

"We have great working relationships with our critical and essential partners, our external contractors to some extent, we can pull overtime," Fowke added.

He said that at one point in 2020, they had successfully redeployed upwards of 200 people to fill shortages in other areas.