Globe and Mail | Justin Hunter | May 6, 2021
The B.C. government has backed off on a requirement that only registered health professionals can administer rapid tests to screen for COVID-19 in the workplace, but not a single employer has yet qualified for the province’s point-of-care testing program that was promised in early March.
Daniel Kelly, president and chief executive officer of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, said Wednesday that government-imposed hurdles have prevented businesses from utilizing workplace-based rapid testing across the country, and B.C. has been one of the last provinces to shift tactics to help employers improve safety in the workplace.
“In England, you have school kids as young as age five self-administering these tests,” he said. “This is not an impossible public policy challenge – but governments, for some reason, have been really slow to move on this.”