Covid-19 Administration Updates

Despite the grim toll the COVID-19 pandemic has taken on all of us, there remain outliers who refuse vaccinations and flout public health rules. If you are one of them, I kindly ask that you read my message to the end.

The fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting Albertans to a far greater degree than anywhere else in Canada. Our healthcare system is critically close to capacity. As I write this, roughly 87.5% of COVID-19 patients in our hospital beds and intensive care units are unvaccinated.

Pause for just a moment and ponder that statistic.

Despite the pandemic, heart attacks and highway rollovers still happen. Life-saving surgeries are still scheduled. Kids still break their arms. But when our hospital beds are full of patients dealing with COVID-19, where do we turn? What happens to the worker who suffers an industrial accident? The frail grandfather who badly needs his back operation? Or the young mother who just got T-boned at a traffic light?

If we keep going down this path, more people will get sick; more people will needlessly die; our healthcare system will be overwhelmed to the point of failure; and sweeping provincial restrictions will place further constraints on our lives and livelihoods. We can’t let that happen.

As a public servant, as a parent, and as a fellow community member, I urge you to get vaccinated. If a friend or family member is unvaccinated, please do your utmost to persuade them. Our only way through this is together.

Barb
Barbara Miller, CPA, CGA, CLGM
Chief Administrative Officer
Municipal District of Lesser Slave River No.124

Please Click Here to view the MD's Risk Mitigation Plan for re-entry.

Over the past several months the MD has been working diligently in a restricted capacity due to strict Health Guidelines as set by Alberta Health in response to control the spread of COVID-19. As these guidelines are being lifted, a “Risk Mitigation Plan” needs to be implemented to ensure the health and safety of the organization and the residents that it serves. This plan will ensure that a heightened level of service will be provided to its residents, in the “New Normal” reality of service delivery.

Risk mitigation policies, processes, procedures and engineered structures and equipment have been researched and developed into a comprehensive mitigation plan which will be implemented and updated as the organization moves forward with its essential operational services.

To help reduce any inconvenience during business hours, Paul Mulholland will now be available to pick up any of your necessary work-related items at the MD main office or Flatbush sub-office, and drop them off to you at your remote office location – and vice versa. If you require pick-up/drop-off support, we ask that you please reach out to Paul directly at 780.805.1435 or by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. so that he can assist you in the most efficient way possible.

• Launching an online Employee Portal to ensure effective and efficient communication with employees
• Promoting frequent and thorough hand hygiene (washing hands for 20 seconds with soap and water, or using alcohol-based hand sanitizer)
• Keeping a distance of at least 2-arms lengths (approximately 2 metres) from others, as much as possible
• Adjusting workplace policies and procedures to reduce social contact, such as designated workstations, flexible hours, use of virtual meetings and teleconferencing
• Increasing the spatial separation between desks and workstations
• Providing virtual IT support at workstations and home office workspaces
• Avoiding sharing communal office space, such as staff kitchens and coffee areas
• Limiting contact with people by restricting public access to MD offices and facilities, and providing virtual and telephone support to residents
• Avoiding sharing pickup trucks and operating equipment (e.g., assigning same employee or operator)
• Conducting routine sanitization of frequently used mobile equipment
• Helping to reduce transmission amongst staff, Council and residents by reducing close contact in routine Council meetings, and providing virtual visibility
• Instituting flexible workplace and leave policies for employees who are sick, in self-isolation, or caring for family members
• Providing mental health support through Sun Life benefits provider, Employee Portal and self-help tools

As you head into the weekend, take the time to relax. Those of you on MD duty: Thanks and practice social distancing. Those of you off: Unplug and de-stress. Go for a walk in the woods. Breathe.

As you head into the weekend, take the time to relax. Those of you on MD duty: Thanks and practice social distancing. Those of you off: Unplug and de-stress. Go for a walk in the woods. Breathe.

There will be a stream of fear and information overload dished out by the media. It is overwhelming.

This MD Portal and webpage is a source of information, as is the alberta.ca site. Get your information, as recommended a week ago, from AHS.

Reflect on the climate change poem below for this COVID19; it makes you think despite its sappiness...

Have a great weekend under the circumstances.

Allan Winarski, CPA, CGA
Chief Administrative Officer
Municipal District of Lesser Slave River No.124

Just a brief update to keep you all in the loop. The MD administration is impacted, like all organizations with staff practicing social distancing and meeting service needs. It recognized that key services need to be delivered, others delivered with precautions, while others may be deferred for awhile. Regardless, we are exploiting our capabilities with technology to meet challenges.

I am working from home. I am more in touch using the phone, Teams, and Zoom, Sharepoint, and One Drive, etc. and other collaborative applications. This along with remote server access has been a godsend. At some point, we will try some of this out with you. Murray and I are staying in touch on a daily basis.

Our closures and activities are in alignment with higher orders of government. You will see communications coming to you on public access at MD administration facilities (Slave and FB). Basically, we will be ensuring that people can drop and receive document, make payments, drop off tenders, development permits, and get items from the MD. By doing this, the work of the MD administration carries on with limited health risk. Staff can work at the office. Those isolated can come in at after hours to grab or drop items.

Our outside crews have not been significantly affected. One grader operator is in isolation. Russ will be in isolation. Scheduling is being maintained.

Our utility crews have made plans within their group for service continuity for plant operations and pump failures. They have been innovative. They are also about to X-train with the TOSL.

The LSLRWMSC and waste transfer stations have curtailed recycling/scavenging for social distance reasons.

The TOSL was seeking to fire up an EOC, they were trying to pick locations. I advised that they should stick to digital linkages and that is how MD administration will proceed.

Note: There have been programs announced that will help our businesses and our citizens who are socially isolated from work. Right now there is no one portal for information, but its coming. One is that the CRA will provide $900 biweekly subject to certain conditions. Learned this on a webinar over lunch.

Remember to get your FACTS from the AHS COVID-19 site and alberta.ca or from the Canadian Government. Information is flowing quickly. Each day the Chief Medical Officer of Alberta speaks around 4:00 pm.

So, know that the MD administration is working and that some things that were saved for a rainy day may be worked on during this time.

Keep smiling.

Allan Winarski, CPA, CGA
Chief Administrative Officer
Municipal District of Lesser Slave River No.124

Like many of you, I am watching the progression of the COVID-19 virus. The virus is serious because it can be fatal to compromised individuals (e.g. Older adults and people with medical conditions like high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, and lung disease appear to be at higher risk of becoming very sick). It is to be taken seriously. Others end up with flu like symptoms if they get the virus and just have to ride it out as there is no treatment. The problem is that we don’t know how it will affect each of us individually.

To make informed decisions for yourself, your family, and your role at the MD, it is important for you to understand what the coronavirus (COVID-19) is, what its symptoms are, how to protect yourself, and what you should do if you think you have COVID-19. For your information, I have attached updated “frequently asked questions” from Alberta Health Services (AHS). As information changes with the spread of COVID-19, you should monitor AHS for updates. The information from AHS is most relevant to you in Alberta and our region.

If you are worried about whether you might have the virus or are at risk, an excellent self-assessment tool has been developed at MyHealth.alberta.ca. Use this self-assessment tool to help determine whether you should get tested for COVID-19. You can complete this assessment for yourself or on behalf of someone else, if they are not able. myhealth.alberta.ca

Some of you are concerned about self-isolating. The answer is that it is an individual one that has to be practiced with responsibility. If you have come back from a vacation in a foreign locale, AHS recommends that you self quarantine.

If you believe that you are inflected, the answer is that you stay away from work and other people. In the attachment to this email, consult: “What should I do if I think I have COVID-19?”

As MD employees, you are more fortunate than many employees in Slave Lake or Westlock or Athabasca, or Canada (or the world) as you are eligible for sick leave. Others do not have this option. That is why the Canadian Government is looking at freeing up Employment Insurance provisions to help those without sick leave. This is one of those times that MD leave is to be taken if you have symptoms or factors that warrant quarantine. If you have used up or run out of time, you may find yourself using up TOIL or vacation time. We will be looking at our STD benefits for application and what the federal government offers. Regardless, this virus is going to be with us for sometime, perhaps months, so your individual decisions about taking days off are serious as the MD still has to operate and conversely we don’t want you infecting people at work.

For some of you, there may be the option of working at home. That will be considered.

In the meantime, this is a time when our true colours of being Canadian will shine through. As citizens, we will take varying degrees of a financial hit and will experience inconvenience with COVID-19, but consideration for others (or yourself if you are infected or at risk of infecting others) is important so that the spread is slowed so healthcare facilities are not overwhelmed all at once as they are in Italy right now. In the end, most of us will likely catch the virus but the timing, if spread out over time, will ensure that those infected folks that really need help, if they have severe symptoms, can be helped by healthcare providers.

As we learn of new information that affects the MD and our staffing, I will update you. Meanwhile:

Keep calm and carry on (and sanitize and keep a social distance between yourself and others…).

And, keep smiling.

Allan Winarski, CPA, CGA
Chief Administrative Officer
Municipal District of Lesser Slave River No.124