St. Catharines NDP MPP Jennie Stevens has written a letter to the education minister saying Niagara's educators need access to booster shots closer to home.
Stevens is asking the government to extend its plan to accelerate COVID-19 boosters for childcare and education workers to include a location in St. Catharines and Niagara before in-class learning resumes on January 17th.
"While we appreciate the effort being made to set up accelerated booster appointments for education workers in the GTA, it
is not reasonable to expect working teachers and education staff to get on the highway to drive long distances to get their
booster. We have as many as 6,000 teachers and education workers in Niagara’s two school boards doing their absolute
best to support our community - they provide an essential service and deserve to have a local and accessible clinic for
boosters"
Stevens says she has worked with the Ministry of the Solicitor General to find and open nearly a dozen locations for walk-in booster clinics in St. Catharines this past month, which have administered thousands of doses.
"While I have already coordinated with our local school boards for small pop up booster clinics for later this month, they need booster support before January 17th. I am confident the Niagara community will step up to find a location, but the Premier has the ability to provide additional staffing support for clinics to accelerate boosters to these brave education workers on the front line of this important essential service."