District of Squamish is renting more vehicles to ensure multiple employees don’t travel in one car so that there is social distancing.
Gary Buxton, the general manager of Community Planning and Infrastructure, said district was repurposing its current fleet and renting more vehicles so that multiple people were not travelling in one vehicle.
Buxton made the remarks while responding to a citizen who had expressed concerns about social distancing after seeing several employees enter into a small building.
“I saw and counted nine city workers enter the small building behind Brennan Park, which I assume is a staff building for changing, eating and lounging,” the citizen wrote.
“There is no way possible they can social-distance in such a small confined space,” he continued.
Buxton said he would like to reassure that district staff were being diligent with social distancing, and it was being taken very seriously in public works and other departments.
“We are taking every precaution to ensure that we prevent spread to our staff, including having almost all of our office staff work from home, increased cleaning of all frequent touch surfaces and vehicles between shifts,” he said.
Buxton said district was also hosting separate meetings to ensure physical distancing was maintained.
“If you saw staff entering a building, then I can assure you that physical distancing requirements are being maintained. We have had plenty of training and direction to ensure the continued, ongoing health and safety of our staff,” he said.
District of Squamish council meetings are now held electronically to protect staff and to adhere to physical distancing requirements. A few weeks ago, district also announced that it would work with Squamish RCMP on educating the public about social distancing in town. It has also placed signage in town to remind people to adhere to social distancing.
Meanwhile, district said it was also taking measures to avoid layoffs of employees where possible and had developed a COVID-19-specific program to redeploy regular employees.
