“Even within the executive, there’s varying opinions on masking and its effectiveness, but generally the consensus is that it’s in place, that it needs to be followed, it’s what the province, the town, the municipalities have put in,” said Graeme Harrington over the phone Nov. 5.
He says enforcement varies from business to business, but he’s not aware of any problems in that area. Starting Oct. 28, all members of the public within the borders of the Town of Westlock, with some noted exceptions, were required to wear some form of face covering while in a public place, or public vehicle.
“Generally, the businesses, from my observations and talking to people, see it as a necessary precaution but are generally compliant. The level to which folks at their businesses are enforcing it definitely varies from a sign out front that explicitly spells it out, some do, some don’t.
“In the establishments themselves, I haven’t directly observed someone coming in with no mask on and having to be reprimanded or spoken to by the business owner. Generally, people seem to be more or less complying.”
In a separate interview, Town of Westlock mayor Ralph Leriger said that he’s estimating a good majority of people follow the bylaw and wear a mask when they’re indoors.
Over the course of last week, the Westlock area seemed to stabilize its case count. Only one more case was recorded Nov. 3, and by the next day, the province’s geospatial COVID-19 tracker showed most people had recovered and no new cases were announced.
The mask bylaw, however, is going to remain in place because there are other factors apart from case count on a given day that influence that decision.
Harrington agrees: “I guess my instinct is that it likely will (continue) because, from my understanding of the bylaw, there’s not automatic threshold for the bylaw to be removed or repealed. But my instinct is that it’s going to be this way for a little while.
“Thirteen (cases) is down from the peak that it was but still puts us squarely in the watch zone and above that initial threshold they talked about of 10 cases. So I think, until things have calmed down to the level it was for say, March through August, I can’t see the masks going away before that, but that’s just my personal view on it.”
Chamber changes
The rise in cases is affecting operations at the chamber as well. Harrington says the executive is going to consider alternatives for member meetings, usually scheduled for the third Thursday of every month.
“We don’t fill up the Legion for those, but we’re going to have an executive meeting and I think it’s probably worth discussing, maybe we ought to try a Zoom meeting or something like that, but that’s to be determined and to be announced.”
After the surge in cases two weeks ago, the chamber cancelled a networking event two days before it was supposed to happen. The weekend before they announced the decision, cases in Westlock had climbed to 23 active and prompted town council to put in the mask bylaw.
The plan then was to reschedule the lunch talk for November.
“That’s a moving target,” said Harrington. “Ideally, we would (host it in November) but it’s so dependent on how things calm down here.”
But that decision doesn’t have much to do with whether or not there’s a mask bylaw still in effect for the town.
“We were planning on having it within the Legion’s capacity to do it safely and serve the meal safely that way and there would still be masking,” he said.
“Essentially, what we were asking our attendees to do before the bylaw was announced is exactly what the bylaw says, which is wear your mask when you enter the venue and when you’re going to the washroom or up and chatting with people, when you’re sitting and eating, then it can come off. It’s not outside the realm that we would do it this month.”
Instead, they’re more focused on how many cases are active in the area and the limits set by the provincial government on gatherings.
Clinton Senkow, one of Forbes magazine’s 2017 “Top 20 Speakers,” was scheduled to give a talk on marketing and branding, social media and entrepreneurial strategies for small businesses at the Westlock Legion.
“Even with a mask bylaw, I don’t see that we couldn’t have it if we felt comfortable that it was safe to do so.” Both Senkow and the Legion have agreed to reschedule the event.
