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HALIFAX, N.S. - The definition of essential seems to be in the eye of the beholder.

At least one flight attendant was recently denied access to a Halifax Transit bus at the Halifax Stanfield International Airport but a municipal councillor and city staff say the bus driver in question erred.

“Metro Transit has been refusing flight crews on the airport bus,” said a retweeted message from an unidentified source.

“For those who have relied on it to get back and forth, have an alternative transportation in mind as they are not qualifying flight attendants as essential services, despite having done it for the last two weeks,” the tweet continued.

Deputy Mayor Lisa Blackburn said Tuesday the lone case that she knows of resulted from a transit driver not understanding that flight crews provide an essential service.

“We put in place that if you are a passenger coming off a plane that you are not allowed to take transit but flight crews are totally different,” Blackburn said.

“This was a misunderstanding between this particular driver who didn’t understand that flight crews are considered an essential service and therefore they are allowed to ride the bus.”

Maggie-Jane Spray, a communications adviser with the municipality, said there had been some confusion.

“Due to COVID-19 and in accordance with Section 32 of the Health Protection Act, all passengers arriving by air from outside of Nova Scotia are not permitted to use public transit,” Spray said.

“However, airline employees who are arriving from outside of Nova Scotia are permitted to travel on Halifax Transit. The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) has made exceptions around travel restrictions for workers who are essential to the movement of goods and people. Flight crews and essential aviation workers are subject to additional precautionary measures.”

Spray did not want to speak to a specific incident but said the initial direction provided to Halifax Transit’s workforce last week was to ensure no air travellers boarded public transit.

“Since the initial direction, clarification was provided (at the beginning of this week) that airline employees are exempt from the limitation. We apologize if any airline employees were adversely impacted.”

Wesley Lesosky, president of the Air Canada component of the Canadian Union of Public Employees that represents flight attendants, said reports of flight attendants being denied public transit are concerning.

“If this is indeed happening, the airline should be supporting workers with transport to the airport during these unusual times," Lesosky said. "Social distancing is paramount during these times, and we would expect that the company be there to assist them.”

Blackburn said Halifax Transit has gone back to all of its drivers to reinforce that flight crews are an essential service and permitted to ride the airport bus.

Blackburn said it was her understanding that it was just one airline employee affected.

“You (airline workers) are not going to need a letter or anything like that,” Blackburn said of the discussion that took place Tuesday morning among councillors, the mayor and business unit directors.

“They are just coming off duty and nine times out of 10 they are still going to be in their uniforms so they are going to be pretty recognizable.”