Leamington council is taking its first steps toward a COVID-19 vaccination policy.
Anyone who uses the Nature Fresh Farms Recreation Centre, or books an appointment to use the programs available in the facility will now need to provide proof or vaccination or submit a negative rapid test result.
In the supporting documentation provided to council at the Tuesday meeting, it was outlined that only 53.9 per cent of the population within postal code area N8H which includes most of Leamington were vaccinated.
Mayor Hilda MacDonald says they received some negative comments before a decision was made, but given the numbers in the community it's the right thing to do.
"This is in reaction to what the data is in our community and so we need to keep people safe and we need to keep our employees safe," she says. "We really don't have a lot of options in this regardless of the fact that there will be people who will not be pleased."
Council also received a report about a potential vaccination policy for municipal staff from their chief administrative officer.
MacDonald says staff will need to have both vaccine shots or take a rapid test.
"Some folks that are working directly with the public like Emergency Management Services they will need to be vaccinated, so there's a couple of levels within our document," she says.
MacDonald is hopeful that this will be a step in the right direction to get staff back working out of buildings again.
"The plan is to have them start back in mid-October. It is time to try and get back to as much of a semblance of normal as possible," she says.
MacDonald adds it will probably be more like the new normal, but they're just following similar regulations implemented in various sectors across the province and the region.
With files from Aaron Mahoney and Rob Hindi