City mask bylaw to remain in place
By Tim Kalinowski on June 16, 2021.
LETHBRIDGE HERALDtkalinowski@lethbridgeherald.com Mandatory masks will stay in place in Lethbridge for the foreseeable future after city council narrowly voted to reject a motion which would have had the local bylaw expire after the province enters Stage 3 of its COVID-19 re-opening strategy.Coun. Blaine Hyggen brought forth the motion to repeal the city’s local Temporary Mandatory Face Covering Bylaw within 24 hours of the province declaring Alberta had entered Stage 3, when it also, presumably, would withdraw its own province-wide mandatory public health order around masking.
Before council could vote on the motion, Coun. Jeffrey Carlson attempted to challenge its validity because a motion cannot be used to repeal a bylaw under the Municipal Government Act- only another bylaw can do that.
While Carlson was backed in his opinion by the city solicitor’s office, Coun. Joe Mauro, a veteran of procedural politics himself, proposed any easy fix to Carlson’s concerns: by amending the motion to state city council would bring in a bylaw to get rid of the Temporary Mandatory Face Covering Bylaw within 24 hours of the province declaring we were entering Stage 3 re-opening.
Mauro’s amendment passed 7-2 with only Councillors Rob Miyashiro and Mayor Chris Spearman opposed, and thus allowed Hyggen’s now MGA-compliant motion to be put on the floor for a vote.
In debate Coun. Miyashiro voiced his opposition to the motion as he felt getting rid of the masking bylaw, even if the province enters Stage 3, was premature. He said council should only consider getting rid of the local masking bylaw when 70 per cent of Albertans have received two vaccinations.
“The other thing that is truly disheartening in our province right now is even people who have had two shots of the vaccine have fallen victim to COVID once again because of the variants,” he stated. “Yes, they don’t get quite as sick, but they still do get sick, and they have to be hospitalized. I think if we just wait until 70 per cent of the province, or even 70 per cent of our region, has two shots, we would stand a way better chance of fighting this off over the long term. And facial coverings are one of the least restrictive things we can do to keep each other safe.”
Coun. Blaine Hyggen said with active cases down to only 22 in Lethbridge as of earlier Tuesday local residents had done what was needed to bring COVID under control by complying with public health orders, including the local and provincial mandatory masking regulations. After this great effort, he said, residents deserved to be rewarded by council by a rescindment of the local masking bylaw after the province rescinds its own public health orders in Stage 3.
“We always spoke about (this bylaw) as a way to educate our community, and my gosh they stepped up to the cause,” Hyggen said. “There is not a single restaurant and not a single building or business I go into that I will not see someone masked. It was not that way previously (to the bylaw). So we need to give a shout out and thanks to our community for what they have done, congratulate them for following this bylaw, and the health order that was put in by the province.”
After these statements of thanks to the community for their efforts, Hyggen called for the vote. The motion was defeated 5-4, with Spearman, Miyashiro, Crowson, Carlson and Coffman opposed. Follow @TimKalHerald on Twitter 4
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