Taber council rescinds mask bylaw
By MEDICINE HAT NEWS on March 15, 2022.
https://www.medicinehatnews.com@MedicineHatNews One of southern Alberta’s last local mask bylaws is off the books. M.D. of Taber council voted last week to rescind its public face-covering bylaw put in place in December 2020, but was only in force during times of extremely high active cases of the coronavirus. The revocation came the same day the provincial government announced it would amend the Municipal Government Act, giving it final say on requests from local governments to institute such public health protections. The MD of Taber’s bylaw was passed on Dec. 1, 2020, days before the province announced an Alberta-wide mask mandate to combat a steep rise in infections during the province’s second wave. The local bylaw applied to people 10 and over in public indoor settings, but included a long list of exemptions and situations. It only came into force when active cases in the M.D. reached 50 per 100,000 population, equal to about 700 actual cases, considering the municipality’s population of about 7,100. A similar bylaw in Medicine Hat was also approved in late 2020, but included a sunset clause of March 2021. It was not renewed at that point. 9-8
