ATHABASCA – The Town of Athabasca has now rescinded its temporary face-covering bylaw, meaning masks and other face-coverings that were mandated by the municipality to prevent the spread of COVID-19 since November, are no longer required.
Following the provincial government’s announcement that Alberta would enter Stage 3 of the Open for Summer Plan as of July 1, Athabasca County council rescinded its bylaw June 24, then town council did the same at a special meeting June 29. When the province lifts its mask mandate on July 1, face-coverings will no longer be required.
“The proposal is to remove our mask bylaw right now as well,” mayor Colleen Powell told councillors. “What I would say is if everything went south, and we ended up with having to have another lockdown we could reconsider that bylaw in the future if it was needed, but right now, considering we only have one person that is capable of enforcing that bylaw. It is mostly moot anyway.”
The identical bylaws were passed by both municipalities on Nov. 16, and then put into effect Nov. 23, as COVID case numbers climbed over 10 and the active case rate per 100,000 residents hit the 50 mark. The Village of Boyle declined to pass its own bylaw at the time. Regardless, the bylaws were superseded by provincial legislation Dec. 8, which has been the law of the land ever since.
Council discussed the rescinding bylaw for all of six minutes, and all three motions passed unanimously, 6-0, with Coun. Tannia Cherniwchan absent from the meeting.
“The bylaw is hereby rescinded. Alright, and as I said, if we have to, if we want to, we can bring it back if we feel that a masking bylaw is necessary, and the province doesn't; that would be the only reason that I think we would want that and that's what we did before,” said Powell.
As of the end of day June 29, there are just three active COVID cases in the Athabasca region, which includes the town, county and village. There have been 718 total cases since April 2020, along with two deaths attributed to the virus.
Across Alberta, 1,055 active cases remain; 165 are in hospital, with 37 of those in intensive care. The province also reached 2,301 deaths this week.
