Few details on policy for unvaccinated N.W.T. gov't workers as deadline looms

The government of the Northwest Territories said it has a plan to allow unvaccinated employees to be regularly tested instead of meeting a vaccine mandate, but as a deadline looms, details of the plan remain unknown.

The vaccine mandate for territorial government employees kicks in on Nov 30. 

With a little more than a week to go, questions remain about who will pay for tests for employees who choose not to get vaccinated and what type of tests will be required. 

In response to questions from CBC News, a spokesperson for the territory's finance department said on Nov. 18, "We'll be providing this information to employees, then making it public."

Roughly a month ago, on Oct. 19, a department spokesperson told CBC News in an email, "At this time, there is no plan for unvaccinated employees to pay for the costs of testing as required by the policy," adding that the N.W.T. government was still "exploring options." 

As of Friday, none of these types of details seemed to be known to employees.

CBC News spoke to an unvaccinated territorial government employee on Friday. CBC News is not revealing the person's identity because of the employee's fear of reprisal.

The employee said they had not been told who would be paying for the tests, what type of test would be required, or how they would get them. They said testing frequency had also not been confirmed, nor to whom the test results might be sent to. 

"We haven't been formally told anything. All we know is that guidelines are being developed," the employee said. 

"My sense is that it will be two times a week or three times a week, but we don't know if this is something we can do ourselves, or if it's paid for by the government or not. I don't know for sure," the employee said.

If necessary, the employee said they would probably pay for the tests themselves, no matter which kind of test is required, rather than give up their job or get vaccinated. They said they are hoping it is a cheaper self-administered test, as opposed to needing to go somewhere twice a week to receive a test from a health-care professional. 

They said they are pleased the policy is more accommodating than other levels of government or jurisdictions, where vaccination is the only option.

"I'm relieved that I won't have to make a difficult choice [with my job]. And my vaccination status is completely private," the employee said. 

There is, however, some ambiguity for what happens to people who are unvaccinated on Nov. 30 said the employee.