By Adam Ophus

Following AHS Guidelines

Mask wearing will not be made mandatory in Rocky Mountain House

Aug 18, 2020 | 4:23 PM

Rocky Mountain House town council has chosen not to make the wearing of face coverings to prevent COVID-19 spread in the community mandatory.

Council discussed the hot button topic at their meeting this afternoon.

Administration was tasked with bringing forward information to council to give them the most up to date details to make an educated decision. They brought to council examples from Canmore, Edmonton, Calgary, Banff and Jasper, which have all passed some form of bylaw mandating the wearing of face coverings in public.

Council was informed that if Rocky were to follow suit, it would put operational strain on the town’s Peace Officers if residents were not compliant or if they received a high volume of complaints. Additional enforcement costs could be possible if the amount of incidences were more than local peace officers could handle and that the additional costs would be in overtime or additional resources.

The Town received one letter in support of masking mask wearing mandatory from the local law office Dunsford & Scott.

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“We believe that requiring their use would bring some needed consistency,” they submitted.

Dunsford & Scott noted that they make each of their lawyers wear face masks and offer them to clients when meeting in person, but say few actually wear them. They acknowledged that COVID-19 practices vary widely from business to business.

Councillor Jason Alderson brought light to the fact that given the amount of correspondence the town received he found it surprising that only one letter was put into the agenda.

CAO Dean Krause clarified that was only due to the letter coming in at an earlier date.

“We have never been anywhere near the number of active cases that AHS guidelines says is required (for a bylaw),” Councillor Merrin Fraser noted during the meeting.

As of Tuesday there were no active cases of COVID-19 in Rocky Mountain House or Clearwater County.

Council unanimously chose to accept the face covering report for information and have chosen to maintain the current situation in which the Town will monitor and follow the rules and guidelines set out by the Alberta Health Services and Occupational Health and Safety.

Mayor Tammy Burke said she hopes that moving forward that no one is made to feel bad for choosing to wear a mask and vice versa.