Point Edward, ON –  Sarnia-Lambton Community Awareness Emergency Response (CAER), Industrial Educational Cooperative (IEC), Sarnia-Lambton Environmental Association (SLEA), Bruce Power, and Enbridge Pipelines Inc. (“Enbridge”) are supporting a new, high-output vaccination model at Lambton Public Health’s (LPH) fixed immunization clinic in Point Edward. Launching this week, the model is an ideal solution for a large-scale immunization rollout, made possible by tremendous contributions from CAER, IEC, SLEA, Bruce Power and Enbridge.

The local petrochemical industry has donated $60,000 in support of Lambton County’s vaccine deployment. As lead sponsor, the funds provided by CAER, IEC, and SLEA were used to convert the Point Edward Arena ice pad into a mass vaccination hub. Through the support of the organization and its members, the Arena has been outfitted with vaccination pods, stanchions, and signage to guide elevated numbers of individuals through the clinic each day.

“Sarnia-Lambton CAER, IEC, and SLEA, and the local petrochemical industry as a whole, are proud to work with Lambton Public Health and the County of Lambton to help make the immunization clinic possible,” said Vince Gagner, General Manager of CAER, IEC, and SLEA. “We collaborate on emergency preparedness through CAER, occupational health and safety through the IEC, and environmental protection through SLEA. This immunization clinic is just one example of the excellent teamwork that takes place across the region through this model of collaboration. Our workers and their families live in and enjoy everything this community has to offer. It was important for us to come together and provide meaningful support to the Sarnia-Lambton area.”

Bruce Power provided resources and extensive logistical support that enabled the transformation of the Point Edward Arena into a mass vaccination hub, in collaboration with LPH and other community partners involved with the clinic.

“Bruce Power remains committed to working with public health officials and all levels of government to assist in the historic vaccination effort that will put an end to the pandemic,” said James Scongack, Bruce Power’s Executive Vice President, Corporate Affairs & Operational Services. Scongack is also co-chair of the Ontario Vaccination Support Council, which was recently launched by the Ontario Chamber of Commerce to provide support for Ontario’s vaccination efforts.

“The Hockey Hub vaccination model is just one example of the public and private sector working together to ensure the health and safety of Ontarians throughout the pandemic, and Bruce Power is proud to play a part,” said Scongack.

“On behalf of the Ontario Vaccination Support Council, our Co-chairs from Bruce Power and Facebook Canada, and founding member, Enbridge, we are simply thrilled about the private and public sector collaboration to quickly get the ‘hockey hub’ mass vaccination site in Lambton County up and running,” said Rocco Rossi, President and CEO, Ontario Chamber of Commerce.  “Ontario’s business community is working proactively in the fight against COVID-19. Thank you to the Sarnia-Lambton Chamber of Commerce for their support to make this happen. The faster the Ontario population is inoculated, the faster we can safely reopen and work together on the province’s economic recovery.”

The Hockey Hub model significantly increases the number of immunizations that can be administered daily. Additionally, the model is scalable based on vaccine supply, the number of people to be immunized, and the size of the space being used.

“We are grateful for the contributions from CAER, IEC, SLEA, Bruce Power and Enbridge which have enabled Lambton County to make an incredible change in process and increase our capacity for immunizations drastically,” said Lambton County Warden Kevin Marriott. “The contributions of all community partners who have brought this build to fruition have been incredible, and seeing this model expand to additional sites in the near future is an exciting prospect.”

Once successfully launched in Point Edward, the model will be reviewed for implementation at other fixed vaccine clinic sites across the County – currently located at the Shores Recreation Centre in Forest and the Wyoming Fairgrounds – as well as at a new fixed clinic site at Clearwater Arena in Sarnia.

In addition to their supporting role through CAER, Enbridge Inc. has announced a donation of up to $75,000 to support the conversion of a second local mass vaccination hub, in an effort to support this accelerated model for vaccine distribution. 

“Enbridge is pleased to support the opening of the large-scale COVID-19 vaccination centres in Lambton County,” says Vik Kohli, Director, Enbridge Eastern Region Operations. “As a leading employer in the region, we are doing our part to support public health authorities, in collaboration with industry and community partners like CAER, in their efforts to immunize as many people as possible in the safest and most expedient manner.”

The Hockey Hub model finds efficiencies in using specific staff for clinical duties only, and other personnel for non-clinical roles, as well as keeping patients stationary while staff move throughout the facility. This streamlined process sees the patient remain in their own pod once registered. The documentation, vaccine administration, and recovery stages all take place within that individual pod. The person administering the vaccine moves from pod to pod, and is able to immunize a higher number of individuals in a shorter period of time than traditional models. At the Point Edward clinic, there are 60 available pods which enable a high volume of people to safely move through the clinic at the same time.

“Once we saw what Grey Bruce Public Health Unit accomplished by joining forces with Bruce Power, we knew we had to find a way to implement this high volume immunization model in our region,” said Dr. Sudit Ranade, Medical Officer of Health for Lambton County. “We are grateful for the time and effort our community partners like Bruce Power have dedicated to us, and are also thankful CAER, IEC, SLEA and Enbridge have stepped up with the funds to allow us to open and operate this model. It takes a village and together we will beat this pandemic.”

The site in Point Edward was assembled this past week and will begin vaccinating those with appointments today. The site is transitioning from using the Optimist Club Community Hall to the ice pad surface in the Arena. Anyone with an appointment currently booked at the Point Edward site will not experience changes to their booking. Wayfinding signage and on-site staff will provide guidance through the new set-up.

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