The extended Calgary bylaw now requires the city to be below that per-capita threshold for 28 days before it expires.Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press
Calgary’s city council has extended its local mask bylaw to prevent it from expiring next week, even as the fourth wave of COVID-19 appears to be subsiding.
The city brought in a face covering bylaw at the beginning of September, the same day the Alberta government declared a state of emergency and imposed a provincewide mask mandate in response to skyrocketing infections.
The bylaw, which councillors at the time said was needed to make the rules easier to enforce, included a provision that it would expire if active cases fell below 100 per 100,000 people for 10 consecutive days, or Dec. 31. The city fell below that threshold last Friday and was below 90 on Tuesday. If that trend continues, the bylaw would expire next Monday.
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But the extended bylaw now requires the city to be below that per-capita threshold for 28 days before it expires. The change passed with a vote of 12-3.
“It’s a way for the city to ensure that we have our mask mandate in place as long as necessary,” said Courtney Walcott, councillor for Ward 8 who put forward the bylaw change. “We have a much more responsive time to our current context.”
Mr. Walcott explained that the extension to the municipal bylaw will continue to provide consistency and certainty in addition to the provincial rules.
He said it’s hard to know if the mandate will expire at the end of the year given the uncertainty around COVID-19 infections.
“A huge part of this process is being fluid, taking information as it comes and not making decisions too far in advance without a full understanding of the landscape or the situation,” he said.
While the provincial government has primarily been in charge of managing the COVID-19 pandemic, some Alberta municipalities have imposed additional rules of their own.
Calgary, Edmonton and other communities imposed mask bylaws last year far earlier than the provincial government. Some of those municipalities have brought those bylaws back for the fourth wave.
Edmonton, for example, also has a mask bylaw that adopted the same threshold as Calgary for its expiration: 100 active cases per 100,000 people for 10 days. Edmonton fell below that per capita threshold for the first time on Tuesday.
Calgary City Council also strengthened Alberta’s vaccine passport rules. Under the province’s system, businesses can choose between following public-health restrictions or checking the vaccination status of customers. Councillors passed a bylaw in late September that removed that choice and made vaccine passports mandatory.
With infections and intensive-care unit admissions falling, municipal governments are weighing how long public-health measures should remain in place. Provincial health officials have stressed that the situation is still precarious – Alberta remains well above the national average for infections and hospital admissions – and Premier Jason Kenney has said he expects the vaccine passport to remain in place into next year.
Public health experts commended city council’s decision to extend the mandate, arguing the provincial health care system continues to be strained.
“We cannot really afford to see an uptick in cases, and we need to see the decline continue for the next several weeks,” said Craig Jenne, an infectious disease expert at the University of Calgary.
Dr. Jenne said easing restrictions prematurely can lead to sudden spikes in the number of active cases across the province, noting the second and third waves as examples.
Noel Gibney, a critical-care doctor and a professor at the University of Alberta’s medical school, said Edmonton should follow suit and extend its mask bylaw, especially with the holiday season approaching.
“We’re talking about something as simple as masking in public space to limit the spread of this thing [the virus],” Dr. Gibney said.
The vote on Calgary’s mask bylaw happened as the city’s vaccine mandate for municipal workers took effect. As of Monday, all city employees are required to be vaccinated or provide a negative test within the previous three days.
The city said 85 per cent of its workers confirmed they were fully vaccinated while 5 per cent have received one dose. Calgary’s fire and police departments reported similar numbers.
A similar policy in Edmonton took effect on Sunday. The city said 88 per cent of its workers were fully vaccinated by then and 4 per cent had one dose.
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