THUNDER BAY — Members of the Thunder Bay Police Service are once again allowed to take scheduled vacations or other approved leave.
Earlier this month, it was learned that all leave had been postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A spokesperson said it was to ensure that police could still respond to emergencies with an adequate number of staff.
Chris Adams said the TBPS was mindful of the fact that any worsening of community transmission of the COVID-19 virus could severly impact staffing levels if members of the service starting falling ill.
However, on Tuesday, Adams said continued monitoring of the situation in the city "guided" police administration into making the decision to resume the granting of annual leave.
He said administration will wait until the state of emergency ends before it considers how to deal with leave that was cancelled.
City Manager Norm Gale said last week that the city had no current plans to cancel employee vacations in any of its departments.
However, the recent declaration of a State of Emergency by Mayor Bill Mauro allows administration to redeploy staff from one department to another if required, superseding any collective agreements.
