Should vaccine mandates end?

• City councillor wants vaccine mandates to end
• But province suggests they are not ending soon

A West Kelowna councillor says it’s time to get rid of the vaccine mandates governing places of work and access to businesses. This as B.C's provincial health officer suggested the mandate and vaccine passport would be extended beyond this month’s deadline.

Councillor Jayson Zilkie, who works in the private lending business, and who is speaking from a personal standpoint, said the time has come to relax the strict vaccine protocols as people need to get back to work.

“Ending the lockdown starts with ending the mandatory vaccine and ending the passport,” Zilkie told Kelowna10.

He insists he fully supports vaccination and the science behind it, but said the time has come for people to be given the choice because having a mandatory vaccine policy adds to the public's mental stress.

“We don’t have to live in fear any longer and we’re ready to move forward in life. Hopefully these mandates can end and restore our communities,” he said.

“People are going to do the right thing… but we need the opportunity to actually make that choice [of getting the vaccine] for ourselves,” Zilkie explained.

Future of vaccine passport

During a press conference Tuesday, Dr. Bonnie Henry said the vaccine card has been an effective way of mitigating all the risks in businesses.

“We are looking at extending it to be able to support businesses and support people in having confidence in going to theatres, restaurants, and gyms in the future,” Henry said, although suggested some places may no longer require the passport.

Health Minister Adrian Dix said the vaccine card had allowed businesses to stay open during challenging times.

The Public Health Order governing vaccine passports runs to Jan. 31 but is likely to be extended in some form.

Gyms and fitness studios are being allowed to reopen Thursday, with additional safety precautions, following four weeks of closures because of the rapidly spending Omicron variant.

Regarding the recent activism by West Kelowna's Iron Energy Gym, which openly opposed the most recent closures, Zilkie said they took a stand and that started momentum.

“You can’t really fault them in any way for standing up for what they believe in,” he said.

On Wednesday, the Kelowna Chamber of Commerce called for better communication from the province following the announcement Tuesday about allowing gyms to re-open under certain conditions.

The chamber said when B.C. imposed an ‘indefinitely’ element to their Public Health Order, on Monday evening, it caused shock waves through the fitness sector. The chamber said it appeared the change was only to give the province time to hold a news conference to give more clarity.

Zilkie said he’s speaking up to help those who have been isolated and marginalized.

“I can no longer sit in silence… we need to restore hope and that provides people with coming back to work and allowing them to provide for their families,” he said.

Latest Numbers

B.C. is reporting 2,387 new cases of COVID-19 Wednesday, an increase of 355 over Tuesday. There were 895 COVID-positive people in hospital, 41 more than Tuesday. A total of 115 are in critical care, an increase of three. There were 13 new deaths.

There were 550 new cases in the Interior, 71 more than the previous day. There were 99 people in hospital, an increase of seven, and 17 remained in critical care, the same number as reported Tuesday. There was one new death.