'Protective laws are not our enemy': Mandatory masks an 'urgent' need as council to debate options next week

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As city councillors prepare to debate potential policies surrounding mandatory masks next week, a physician says there is an urgent need for Calgary to follow the lead of cities in Ontario and Quebec.

City staff are also urging members of council to consider new measures to curb the spread of COVID-19, as active cases throughout the province continue to rise. The province announced 105 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Friday, marking the second consecutive day Alberta reported more than 100 new positive tests.

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'Protective laws are not our enemy': Mandatory masks an 'urgent' need as council to debate options next week Back to video

City administrators have recommended council to mandate the wearing of face coverings on all Calgary Transit vehicles beginning Aug. 1.

If a motion to accept the recommendation from city staff passes, council could also direct the city manager to develop and implement a policy to potentially require face coverings be worn in all indoor city-owned or operated properties.

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Councillors could also request city staff look into a potential bylaw by September surrounding mandatory use of face masks, based on staged phases and triggers. That bylaw could require people to wear face coverings in other public indoor spaces, following the lead of cities like Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal.

Calgary emergency physician Dr. Joe Vipond said there’s an “extremely urgent” need to make face masks compulsory throughout the city.

“Mandatory masking works in order to get compliance to go up,” said Vipond, an organizer with the Alberta chapter of Masks4Canada.

“We know that as things grow exponentially, it gets faster and faster and faster. We are already behind the curve and we are losing.”

A total of 859 COVID-19 cases remain active in Alberta, including 385 within Alberta Health Services’ Calgary zone. That marked an increase of 23 active cases within the region from Thursday.

Vipond said it doesn’t make sense to delay the issue throughout the summer.

“We don’t have time for two months of debate on this,” he said.

“In a pandemic, you act with the best information you have possible and you act fast and decisively. This is not fast and decisive action.”

Some members of city council aren’t willing to mandate masks in all public spaces quite yet.

Coun. Shane Keating said he’s open to the idea, but didn’t want to go “too overboard just yet.” He said he supported making face coverings mandatory on buses and CTrains immediately to start off.

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“If there is a drastic change then we will have to revisit the scenario,” Keating said.

“I think we should be looking at it if the cases start ramping up drastically. Then we have to do something else other than what we’re doing at this point. I’m kind of a wait-and-see attitude, but not opposed.”

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Coun. Sean Chu questioned how any mask rule would be enforced, including on public transit.

While Chu noted he personally wears a mask in stores, he said it isn’t the city’s role to tell Calgarians what to do.

“We don’t need to be a nanny state,” he said.

“I think Calgarians are smart enough. They know that, ‘I’m going to take the bus, I’m going to wear a mask.’ We should treat people with respect, like adults. Let people make the decision.”

Chu said he also disagreed with the city stepping in after the province indicated no Alberta-wide mask order would be in the cards.

The provincial government began distributing 20 million additional masks to the public earlier this week, but Premier Jason Kenney said his government would not make it mandatory to wear them.

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“To quote (chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw), we can’t enforce our way out of the pandemic and the vast majority of Albertans I don’t think need to be told to do the right thing,” Kenney said last Monday.

“But we all know by now that it’s our civic duty to reduce our risk of exposure and transmission as much as possible and that means wearing a mask in crowded indoor public spaces, where physical distancing is not possible.”

Vipond said studies have shown 60 to 80 per cent of the population would need to wear masks in public spaces to effectively reduce transmission rates of COVID-19.

“The problem is we kind of suck at responding well to strong recommendations,” he said.

“How many weeks have we had strong recommendations coming from Dr. Hinshaw to this point? It’s got to be at least five or six and our masking rates are still abysmally low.”

He pointed to other legislation, like seatbelt and bike helmet laws, which drastically increased compliance.

“We know that once the laws come into place, compliance goes way up,” Vipond said.

“Protective laws are not our enemy. Our enemy is the virus.”

shudes@postmedia.com
Twitter: @SammyHudes