Ottawa by-law officers dealing with ‘unsustainable’ volume of calls ahead of vaccine certificate rollout
Posted Sep 17, 2021 02:44:00 PM.
The City of Ottawa's By-law and Regulatory Services (BLRS) department says the volume of calls that the average officer deals with on a daily basis is becoming unsustainable, and the workload could increase when Ontario's vaccine certificate program rolls out next week.
BLRS Director Roger Chapman doesn't expect a huge increase in calls when the program takes effect next Wednesday, September 22, but says his officers are already working extremely hard.
In a pre-pandemic times, it was typical for an officer to respond to between 400 and 600 calls per year.
“It's difficult to say what is [an] acceptable service request level per officer,” Chapman told the city's Community and Protective Services Committee on Thursday, September 16. “What I can say is, currently around the 900 service requests per officer is not sustainable. That's obvious to us.”
The Government of Ontario says businesses and organizations will be responsible for ensuring they meet the requirements regarding proof-of-vaccination.
Chapman says BLRS staff are currently reviewing regulations, and are preparing to respond to any calls.
Last year, Ottawa by-law officers responded to more than 13,000 pandemic-related calls for service.
