BANFF – Banff’s mayor is voicing concerns over the Alberta government’s plan to introduce legislation preventing municipalities imposing their own separate health restrictions.
On Tuesday (March 1), Premier Jason Kenney announced plans to make changes to the Municipal Government Act to limit the ability of municipalities to enact bylaws that are contrary to provincial public health policy and expertise, such as local mask mandates.
Mayor Corrie DiManno said the Town of Banff generally supports the idea of consistent application of COVID-19 protection measures, but would be concerned if the province is eliminating any ability for municipalities to protect and address unique situations in communities.
“I think it would be concerning if we couldn’t do what we needed to do to protect our community,” she said.
“We need to see the details and we would be advocating for the ability to always protect our community if it’s something that’s going above and beyond whatever the provincial standards are.”
The Alberta government lifted its mask mandate as of March 1 as part of its elimination of nearly of COVID-19 restrictions.
The City of Edmonton, however, is keeping its in place until at least March 8.
However, the proposed amendments to the Municipal Government Act (MGA) will restrict the ability of municipalities to pass bylaws that contradict public health policies and rules enacted by the province.
Kenney said this move will ensure Alberta has one clear policy on COVID-19.
“As we safely move beyond COVID restrictions, we need clarity, consistency and unity,” he said.
“It would be confusing and divisive to have multiple different public health policies, particularly when there is no compelling public health rationale. It is time for us to move forward together.”
Cathy Heron, president of Alberta Municipalities, said the provincial government’s top-down approach is “heavy-handed and unnecessary.”
Heron said Kenney has made this move without any formal conversation, consultation or collaboration with Alberta Municipalities on this important topic.
“It seems like a short-term political calculation that could influence long-term governance decisions at the municipal level. It is cause for concern, and we worry that it may set a dangerous precedent,” she said in a statement.
“After all, if the provincial government can amend the MGA whenever a local government disagrees with it or wishes to take a different approach, then municipalities will have lost some of their autonomy and some of their freedom to decide and act locally in the best interests of their residents and businesses.”
Alberta Municipalities asked the Alberta government to reconsider its decision.
“We encourage it to work with us and other key municipal government stakeholders to resolve the issue another way,” said Heron.
At the onset of COVID-19 in spring 2020, the Town of Banff implemented its own indoor mask bylaw when the province of Alberta was slow to take action.
“It did work in the past when we introduced our indoor mask bylaw we did before the province did and we saw that that worked at keeping our community safe,” said Mayor DiManno
“We would be concerned if it’s going to be eliminating any ability for municipalities to set protections that way.”
There were many times during the pandemic when the tourist town of Banff was the No. 1 COVID-19 hotspot in the province, perhaps even the country.
“We have visitors from Alberta, but we also have visitors from across Canada and across the world so we’re used to communicating to people that come from areas with different rules,” said Mayor DiManno.
“While we appreciate the province wants to have consistent messaging among Albertans, Banff is well positioned to communicate to folks from around the world.”
On March 1, Alberta dropped almost all public health restrictions as the province moved to step 2 of reopening.
Along with lifting the provincial mask mandate, there are no longer limits on social gatherings.
All capacity restrictions on businesses and venues have been lifted on businesses and the mandatory work-from-home order is gone.
Mandatory COVID isolation for core symptoms or a positive test results remain in place. Isolation periods are five days at home and five days of continued masking for fully vaccinated individuals, or 10 days for partially and unvaccinated individuals.
Moving to step 3 will be based on hospitalization rates continuing to trend downwards, at which point isolation will be a recommendation only and COVID-19- specific measures in continuing care units and AHS facilities and on public transit will be removed.
