The City has drafted a new policy that is making sure people with substance dependency issues don’t impact the safety and health of others in the workplace.
The new policy will follow the same standards set by the Criminal Code of Canada on impairment and acceptable levels of drugs and alcohol in a persons system. City Councillor Jonathan Torresan says that this is a good approach because administration has little to do with the actual policy.
“Good thing about that is it’s kind of a moving threshold depending on what standards are set by the federal government. We can continue to adhere to those and we don’t have to do too much of the science and the background work on our own, we can follow that standard.”
Things like alcohol and drug testing, as well as impaired driving will also be looked at federally then applied at the municipal level. Torresan says that prescribed drugs are still a form of impairment and that City employees need to be held to a high standard.
“The City of Lloydminster employees deal with the public, they deal with heavy machinery so I think it’s really important that we recognize all of them as safety sensitive positions, where all of them are having to follow this high standard of no tolerance impairment following the Criminal Code standards.”
The regulations, if passed will apply to any employee or volunteer of the City.