Laid-off staff from WestJet, Air Canada, the Vancouver Canucks, the Langley-based Vancouver Giants and cruise ship services are among the companies lending their hospitality skills to B.C.’s mass COVID-19 vaccination effort.
Premier John Horgan announced the program Wednesday, saying the province will be paying part of the salaries for some of the 1,400 people signed up through 14 employers, those hardest hit by travel and other public health orders of the year-long pandemic. Some participating companies are covering the full pay of their employees to take part by serving as coordinators for the 170 community vaccination centres that are gearing up.
Other groups participating are Vancouver International Airport, the Abbotsford-based Fraser Valley Bandits basketball team, Tourism Whistler, the Canadian Red Cross, the B.C. Pavilion Corp. and Ceres Terminals Canada, which provides services for cruise ships that have been banned from B.C. ports until March of 2022.
Kathy deLisser, regional vice-president for Ceres Terminals Canada, said the program offers the company an opportunity to put idle people to work, and to keep teams together for when cruise ship and other international travel can resume.
The province has released a map showing the approximate location and type of community vaccination clinics here.
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