Face Coverings Bylaw Final Update (March 8th, 2022)
At the start of the day, I was expecting to vote to repeal the face coverings bylaw, not because I agreed with that approach, but because the provincial government had made it clear that they were planning on amending the Municipal Government Act to retake jurisdiction on an issue that they previously gave to municipalities.
Part of why I was planning to vote to repeal it is because I felt that if I was going to be pressured into voting that way, it should at least cause the provincial government to reconsider their stance on amending the MGA. Earlier today, we found out that the provincial government introduced the change to the MGA that impacts all municipalities across the province regardless of council’s decision.
After our council meeting today, I voted to repeal the face coverings bylaw.
Immediately after that vote, I put forward another motion that was approved to explore creating a new face coverings bylaw that is comparable to the one we just repealed. If approved, the bylaw is required to be submitted to the provincial government for their review as written in Bill 4.
The Municipal Government Act states,
“A council may pass bylaws for municipal purposes respecting the following matters:
(a) the safety, health and welfare of people and the protection of people and property”
Bill 4 does not change the above statement but it does propose amending the MGA to allow the municipality to put forward a mask bylaw subject to the following:
“The Minister shall consider the public interest and consult with the Chief Medical Officer of Health appointed under the Public Health Act in determining whether to approve a bylaw or an amendment to a bylaw referred to in subsection (1).”
That means no mask bylaw could be approved in Edmonton unless approved by the Minister of Municipal Affairs after consultation with Dr. Hinshaw.
Dr. Hinshaw’s recommendations have still not been released to the public and earlier today she stated that “masking is a prudent public health measure” but also stated that the decision to require masks is up to elected representatives. This is important because a number of the emails I received suggested that Dr. Hinshaw has recommended that masks stop being worn and that is not the case.
Based on the provincial government’s current approach, it is unlikely that the provincial government will accept a new mask bylaw by the City but I believe that we need to at least have the Minister of Municipal Affairs consult with the Chief Medical Officer of Health to ensure we have thoughtfully considered all steps as we move into learning to ‘live with COVID’.
I also took some time during today’s meeting to share some additional comments about how the pandemic has evolved and what I heard from residents over the past few weeks.
On March 13th, 2020 we held a special council meeting. At that meeting we had to make the tough decision to cancel meetings for the rest of the month so that City staff could be able to respond to COVID-19. If I’m being honest, I was thinking that whatever we were about to go through was going to last up to a few months. I never would have thought that two years later, we would still be in a pandemic. And to be clear, we are still in a pandemic no matter how much some people may suggest otherwise.
Over the last few months, many more people have contracted COVID than any other time in the last two years. Fortunately, many of those people were vaccinated and that has meant that even though there have been a large number of people who got COVID, many have been able to recover.
Since many did not experience severe outcomes, that has started to shift people’s thinking about how we respond to this virus. That is a reasonable perspective and it’s completely understandable why we might develop a new plan that reflects a changing reality.
But as we heard, when it comes to the data used to inform the removal of public health measures in Alberta, there’s only a handful of people who actually know what that information is and they have not chosen to share it with people like the Edmonton Zone Chief Medical Officer of Health, and more importantly, they haven’t shared it with the people they serve. The unwillingness by the provincial government to publicly share the recommendations from our Chief Medical Officer of Health and the data used to inform their current plan that directly affects the health of all Albertans is incomprehensible and a complete dereliction of their duty.
I could spend the entire time talking about the provincial government’s approach but they have made their decisions and should be held accountable for those decisions. I’d like to spend the remainder of my time talking about what I’ve heard from Edmontonians over the past few weeks.
For some, they view the less severe outcome they experienced as a reason to ‘get back to normal’ or ‘learn to live with COVID’ as quickly as possible. Again, I think that is a reasonable position for an individual to have based on their personal experiences. But it’s important to acknowledge that getting back to normal is never going to happen. The world has changed dramatically over the last two years and our normal from two years ago will not be the normal going forward.
For example, in the last 120 days, there have been 783 deaths out of the 3,972 that have lost their lives in Alberta. That means that approximately 20% of all deaths have occurred in the last 4 months. During this same period, additional surgeries were cancelled or delayed to deal with capacity issues in our hospitals.
Those who experienced some of the greatest impacts throughout the entire pandemic are seniors. Of the total COVID-deaths in Alberta, 89.4% of all deaths are of people 60 and older.
I spoke with many seniors over the last two years who have had important procedures cancelled or delayed. This includes exploratory surgeries to determine what cancer treatment should be taken. Some of those people were never rescheduled because their cancer advanced beyond the point of treatment. This also includes hip replacement surgeries which if you know anyone who has been waiting for hip replacement, while it’s not life threatening, the pain people can experience while they are waiting can be debilitating.
So it probably shouldn’t come as a surprise that over the last two weeks, those that expressed the greatest concern about removing the face coverings bylaw are seniors. While it wasn’t unanimous from all seniors, the vast majority of seniors I spoke with expressed concerns about the removal of every public health measure and view the wearing of a mask is a small action that we can continue to take as we determine what our new reality will look like.
To me, it feels like some in society have chosen to move on without understanding the consequences of our actions, particularly on seniors. Unfortunately, this is common in our society and we see examples of it all the time. Early in the pandemic, the Premier publicly stated that the average age of someone who died from COVID was 82. To me, it felt like that information was shared to try and downplay the severity of the virus. Seniors deserve better and we owe it to them to ensure we understand how they will be impacted as we move forward.
Friday, March 11th is the Day of Observance to commemorate the people who lost their lives and the significant impacts we have all felt because of COVID-19. The worldwide death total has just surpassed 6 million people in two years. We cannot forget this even as public health measures are removed.
I realize that wearing a mask alone is not going to prevent every death or severe consequence. I also realize that for some, the mask has negative connotations. They view it as potentially a loss of their freedom. While I think the events happening in Ukraine put that view in perspective, I understand that there is still an impact with this public health measure.
I believe it is critical for us to ensure we have explored all options and the new Bill 4 does allow us to submit a bylaw for review by the Minister of Municipal Affairs in consultation with the Chief Medical Officer of Health. While I would have preferred that the provincial government simply release the data used to inform their decisions to the public, submitting a bylaw for their review is still a valid approach based on the amendments being proposed in Bill 4.
I am concerned with the idea that the provincial government can simply amend the MGA anytime they disagree with a decision made by a democratically elected municipal government and I would still hope they reconsider their approach. No matter where you are on the political spectrum, we should not feel comfortable with a provincial government overruling a decision of a municipality simply because they disagree.
With the mask bylaw repealed, I highly encourage you to continue wearing a mask. As mentioned above, Dr. Hinshaw stated that masking is still a prudent public health measure and the peer-reviewed evidence is quite clear that they do help, particularly N95 or KN95 masks. I will continue to wear a mask indoors until we get a better sense of what learning to live with COVID actually looks like. Thanks for taking the time to read this and if you have any questions or feedback, please let me know.
