Public Health Order on Masks in Public Indoor Settings
COVID-19 BC Restrictions
Last Updated – 30th August 2021
As COVID-19 vaccinations have become widely available to British Columbia the overall risk of Covid 19 transmission and serious consequences has diminished. Despite this and in consideration of the Delta variant and the percentage of population unvaccinated, the virus will still circulate like other communicable diseases.
This is the Lions Gate plan which will include ongoing measures to reduce the risk of communicable disease, including COVID-19, and additional measures for when there’s an elevated risk of communicable disease.
Key Principles for Reducing Risk of Communicable Disease Transmission
We can identify routes of communicable disease transmission based on what has been learned so far in the pandemic and what is known about other respiratory viruses, such as influenza. By identifying the pathways and situations that lead to communicable disease transmission, we can also outline the key Communicable Disease Prevention principles that should be used when developing practical safety plans. The primary route of communicable disease transmission is prolonged close contact with a symptomatic, pre-symptomatic, or asymptomatic infected person. Originally part of our COVID Safety Plan, the following 8 principles remain applicable for communicable diseases in general and are therefore retained.
A communicable disease is an illness caused by an infectious agent or its toxic product that can be transmitted in a workplace from one person to another. Examples of communicable disease that may circulate in a workplace include Covid 19, Norovirus and seasonal influenza.
Lions Gate is documenting the plan to assist in planning for elevations in or escalations in risk. We have policies in place, existing and remaining current signage, and appropriate physical protection i.e., PPE.
Our vaccination policy for employees is straightforward and in line with current public health direction. We strongly recommend that all our managers, supervisors and employees take the opportunity to fully vaccinate against the spread of COVID-19. We stop short of requiring this but caution that on client sites which do require proof of full vaccination, only those that meet that requirement will be deployed.
Lions Gate is fully supporting employees receiving Vaccinations for COVID-19 and other vaccine preventable conditions. Our joint health and safety committee chair maintains a COVID-19 record of employee’s vaccination status. That data is securely stored, does not have to be provided under mandate, but does inform deployment decision making, and risk assessments.
We continue to require our employees to conduct daily self-health checks and to include all communicable diseases. This sensible practice will reduce transmission. Anyone that has any communicable disease symptoms cannot enter the workplace.
Lions Gate includes:
A verbal check in carried out by field supervisors, done either in person, virtually, or by phone with every worker, confirming that the worker has completed their daily health check.
There are Four Steps in our Communicable Disease Prevention Process:
Lions Gate has assessed workplaces and is continually assessing workplaces to identify places where the risk of transmission is introduced to ensure risks are identified and managed. This process does involve frontline workers, supervisors, and joint health and safety committees and/or worker representatives.
We have documented our process for monitoring and reviewing communicable disease-related information which is issued by the Office of the Provincial Health Officer in British Columbia. This does include the person responsible for reviewing and monitoring information backed by a process which includes frequent information and status review.
Anything that is related to our industry, our region, or our workplace is acted upon. This includes our response to orders, guidance, notices, and recommendations issued by that Office.
Lions Gate has written and maintains Policies, Protocols and Procedures Develop the necessary policies to manage our company workplaces and field operations at client sites. These address who can be at the workplace, how to address illness that arises at the workplace, and how workers can be kept safe in adjusted working conditions. We have implemented policies to support staff who have symptoms of a communicable disease for example, fever or chills, coughing, diarrhea so they can avoid being at the workplace when sick. We do communicate these policies clearly to workers through training, signage, and reminders as required.
Through internal updates and training we ensure that everyone entering the company workplaces, including workers from other employers, knows how to keep themselves safe while at those company workplaces.
We use the following workplace signage provided by WorkSafeBC to communicate measures:
Lions Gate provides adequate hand-washing facilities at company facilities for all workers, and we ensure the location is visible and easily accessed. We have developed policies around when workers must wash their hands, including upon arriving for work, before and after breaks, after handling cash or other materials, before and after handling common tools and equipment.in accordance with section 4.85 of the Occupational Health & Safety regulation.
4.85 Washroom facilities
(1) Except as provided by subsection (2), the employer must ensure that enough plumbed washroom facilities are readily available for workers.
(2) If plumbed washroom facilities cannot be provided because of the nature of the workplace or the nature of the work in which the worker is involved, the employer must
(3) If washroom facilities are provided, they must be
We use policies and signage to remind workers to wash their hands regularly and to cover coughs and sneezes.
We maintain a clean environment through routine cleaning processes that are appropriate for our industry how remote working in client field locations and other work practices.
We make sure building ventilation is adequate and ventilation systems are properly maintained and functioning as designed.
Lions Gate follows all direction from the Office of the Provincial Health Officer in British Columbia that is relevant to the security industry, our region, or workplaces including field operation areas for clients. During a period of elevated risk, the Office of the Provincial Health Officer in British Columbia will provide information and guidance about how the risk needs to be managed and how we can reduce it. The measures we will need to implement will depend on the type of disease and the methods of transmission.
We respond to the guidance of the Office of the Provincial Health Officer in British Columbia and assess whether there is a need in the workplace to identify areas activities and processes that may pose a risk to workers because of that new guidance. We stand ready to implement appropriate control measures to reduce the newly identified risk, following the direction of the Office of the Provincial Health Officer in British Columbia. We recognize that WorkSafeBC has maintained key communicable diseases protocols that we can refer to help us mitigate the risk.
Lions Gate ensures that anyone entering the workplace including workers from other employers receives information about our measures, practices, and policies, for managing communicable disease.
All our employees understand the measures in place at Lions Gate workplaces and when deployed to client sites.
We have delivered online training and circulate bulletins for all staff on the measures we have put in place, our Communicable diseases prevention plan, and the policies around staying home when sick.
We post signage, including occupancy limits and effective hand-washing practices at company locations and where required at client field locations and sites. For company workplaces we have placed signage at the main entrance indicating who is restricted from entering the premises (including visitors and workers with symptoms).
We ensure supervisors have been trained on monitoring workers and workplace to ensure policies and procedures are being followed.
