Absolutely. They did after they announced that they would be procuring vaccines for staff members in the institution. Since the beginning of the pandemic, what UCCO-SACC-CSN has been calling for is that once a vaccine was available, it should be offered in the institution for both the staff and the inmates because of our close-quarter working environments and the fact that we're a communal living facility. When we put the onus onto the provinces, we see differences across regions as to who is going to get vaccinated first.
Our members are performing as the first responder group of all occupations. We're firefighters, paramedics and police inside the institution. We're often in very close quarters with inmates and with each other. It was very important to us that our members were given priority.
We engaged on many fronts about being a priority. Finally we were consulted once vaccine had been procured for the institution and staff.