Sask. health authority accidentally outs employees in email about proof-of-vaccination program
CBC
The Saskatchewan Health Authority is apologizing for sending out an internal email Thursday that widely identified hundreds of employees by name who may not have disclosed their COVID-19 vaccination status by a stated deadline.
CBC News obtained a copy of the email, which was sent to 497 people. It appears to be part of a larger list, as it was sent only to people with last names starting with "B" or "C."
"Your employee ID was not matched with a record of a submitted self-declaration stating your COVID-19 vaccination status," the email stated. "If you completed the declaration by the October 15, 2021, deadline, please disregard this email."
The SHA is among several groups, including the Saskatchewan government and Crown corporations, that announced they're requiring workers to provide proof of vaccination or else face regular testing to prove they don't have COVID-19.
"The Saskatchewan Health Authority apologizes to our employees whose names were inadvertently revealed in an email sent this week," the SHA said in an emailed statement to CBC News on Friday. "The email was sent to all employees who did not have their employee ID number match a self-declaration stating their COVID-19 vaccination status....
"Please note this email is about the submission of the declaration, and does not provide any personal health information, including vaccine status."
The SHA said it's reviewing its process to ensure this type of email is "sent more discretely in the future."
SHA employees were to self-declare their vaccination status by Oct. 15 and then actually provide their proof of vaccination by early November, or else face regular testing.
The SHA said in its statement that some IDs submitted did not match current employees.
"We are not able to determine if that was an entry error. Any employee whose ID was not included is being sent the same email."
As of last Friday, the SHA had received just over 40,000 self-declarations, including a small number from students and volunteers, according to Derek Miller, the SHA's head of emergency operations. The health authority has about 44,000 employees in total.
About 98 per cent of the more than 40,000 people who submitted their self-declarations said: "they are or will be fully immunized by early November," Miller said.
One per cent said they would enrol in the weekly testing program, while the remaining one per cent indicated they will be seeking approval for medical or religious accommodation, Miller said.
More precise take-up data on physicians was shared among doctors attending a virtual Saskatchewan Health Authority town hall on Thursday.
Windsor-Essex, Chatham-Kent and Sarnia can all expect between 20 and 40 millimetres of rainfall this weekend.
More Alberta seniors are now eligible for a provincially funded RSV vaccine.
More than 100 workers at a steel plant in eastern Ontario are being laid off either temporarily or permanently, as a company with facilities in Quebec and Ontario cuts its workforce due to challenging market conditions — including U.S. tariffs.
A small town northwest of Thunder Bay, Ont., has become the unlikely home for hundreds of foreign workers, but many may have to leave the community they've embraced after the end of a federal program put in place to fill gaps in Canada's labour market.
There's mixed reaction in Waterloo to an injuction allowing police to detain, arrest and charge anyone who is participating in unsanctioned street parties in that city this weekend.
Diabetes Canada is excited about Prince Edward Island's new pharmacare deal with the federal government, but hopes the province will reevaluate copays on diabetes supplies, says a senior manager with the organization.
After 26 years of accommodating guests from across the world, Faith Embleton says she and her husband Ken are ready to sell their bed and breakfast.
A group of big-name companies including Google, Meta and Dow have signed a pledge to support tripling the world's nuclear energy capacity by 2050, a signal of the technology's growing resurgence in popularity.
Five years on, Toronto-area doctors and public health officials are looking back at what they've learned since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic — and most agree the early experience will prove useful if the city faces another infectious disease crisis.
City staff would like Londoners to take a good look around their home and ask themselves a direct and possibly difficult question: Could everyone in your family survive at home, without leaving and with no other help, for a full 72 hours?
Liberal Leader Mark Carney will officially become Canada's next prime minister within a few hours, taking the reins as the country barrels toward a general election and continues to fend off verbal and economic attacks from U.S. President Donald Trump.
Recent cyberattacks in Newfoundland and Labrador should have been a wake up call for the federal government about the reality of an increasingly hostile world, says one cybersecurity expert.
A recent CBC News analysis found that Nova Scotia is rapidly losing some of its most affordable apartments, but housing experts say there are ways to prevent that.