WESTLOCK - Councils in the Village of Clyde and Westlock County don’t yet have plans to institute mask bylaws in their jurisdictions, but they are tracking the COVID-19 situation.
“At this time, the county has no plans in place with regards to a mask bylaw but we continue to monitor the progress of COVID-19 and encouraging everyone to follow those provincial guidelines and recommendations,” said county reeve Jared Stitsen over the phone Oct. 29.
“It’s not a big amount of areas (where the bylaw would apply in the county). … The majority of ours are small gas stations and community halls, but there’s not much happening at community halls.”
The Town of Westlock instituted a bylaw that covers all public places Oct. 28, which Stitsen says county residents have to be aware of and respect. This came after the Westlock area, which includes all three munis, hit 23 active cases of 31 recorded on Monday. The numbers have since risen to 24 as of Oct. 30.
In Clyde, CAO Ron Cust says he’ll bring information to council about other municipalities and what they’ve done. The village safety committee “had a fairly extensive discussion about it as well,” last Monday, he said, but he hasn’t heard of a positive case in the village proper.
“I’m going to put together some information for council for the next meeting (Nov. 16) regarding some options for them. But at this time, the last time we discussed it they were more inclined to wait and see how bad the cases get and what the next steps would be for us to make sure we’re in track with the other municipalities.”
Council can decided then if they want a bylaw drawn up. But, he added, there’s only a limited amount of places it would apply in the village: the post office, the village bar, the transfer station on Highway 18 and the Auction Mart.
“As far as the auction itself, they’re not holding auctions on site there right now. They’re offsite and they’re virtual, so we don’t have a problem there. The only place where we would benefit from a full mask bylaw would be … the post office or the Clyde Bar. And by and large, a number of people area already doing that.”
In the village office, which is back to minimum hours, people are required to mask up when they enter. Admin keeps a log of who enters the building. Council meetings have also been switched back to the virtual format.
“Our focus would be on the places where they’re serving people. We’ve taken care of (our office) so the bar would be the one that we’ll be in discussions with,” said Cust, who’s looking to strike a balance between voluntary and legislated mask-wearing.
One student at Eleanor Hall School in Clyde has tested positive for COVID-19 case and 22 people are in isolation. A municipal mask bylaw wouldn’t apply in schools since they already have guidelines set by Alberta Health Services, Alberta Education and the Pembina Hills School Division.
