During a meeting of the Guelph Police Service Board on Thursday, the department’s head of human resources said more than half of the department’s workforce has been affected by having to isolate due to COVID.
Kelly McKeown, human resources services manager for Guelph Police Service (GPS) said a total of 13 members, including some civilian staff, have tested positive for COVID since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020.
“All have recovered and returned to work,” said McKeown.
Five of those cases were associated with an outbreak at GPS headquarters that was reported in January in which 14 high-risk contacts were also identified.
In total, 173 have required to be isolated due to high-risk exposure to COVID, said McKeown.
“To put that in perspective, if you look at that in terms of a working year being 2,080 hours that would be approximately four working years of time as a result of COVID-related isolations,” she said.
A 2020 financial report included in the agenda for Thursday’s meeting noted operational costs incurred due to COVID in the amount of $417,000, of which $123,000 represented unbudgeted costs for supplies, equipment and overtime.
Despite COVID, the department received a big boost in the number of recruit applications received in 2020 over the previous year. In total, 534 recruit applications were received and 17 new police positions were filled. Additional positions were also filled due to resignations and retirements.
In 2019 the department received 154 recruit applications.
Last year the department received 25 applications from experienced officers working at other police services, ultimately hiring four of them. In addition, eight civilians hired last year came from other police services, which McKeown said reduces the number of hours of training required for those positions.
Thursday’s meeting was the first to be broadcast live on YouTube. The meeting is usually held in person monthly and during the pandemic has been held by teleconference.
