Ending mask bylaw the wrong action
By Letter to the Editor on February 24, 2021.
Editor:
Bylaw 6239 — the temporary mandatory face coverings bylaw — was put into effect on Aug. 24, 2020. It has come to my attention that the Standing Policy Committee has voted in favour to recommend that the City of Lethbridge Council let this bylaw expire Feb. 23 and rely solely on the province mask mandate.
I am writing to express my concern for this action and ask the Lethbridge City Council vote against this recommendation and extend the mask bylaw beyond Feb 23.
. Removing the mask bylaw would go against advice of medical experts. The wearing of face coverings is an additional way in which we can protect the health and well-being of our community. By keeping our COVID-19 cases low, we can keep our businesses open and our economy moving forward.
The provincial mask mandate simply states that masks are mandatory in all indoor public places, indoor workplaces, and places of worship. Whereas the City of Lethbridge bylaw expands on that to ensure public vehicles including Lethbridge Transit buses, Access-a-Ride, taxi, rideshare service are included.
The City of Lethbridge bylaw also includes local enforcement and violation ticking as well as Lethbridge specific signage that has been displayed prominently throughout the community.
This signage has helped to educate and encourage residents to wear a face covering as an additional method of helping to reduce the spread of COVID-19 over and above the provincial recommendations.
Extending the mask bylaw will ensure we can continue to safely reopen our City to the events and activities we enjoy.
Krysty Thomas
Lethbridge
-1
Quite right. Seems like bowing to the libertarians is the MO of certain councillors.
what this does is to simply leave the masking law in the hands of the provincial sphere. thus, should it ever return to a time when it is safe to exhibit one’s nose and mouth in public again (how long under cover before the nose and mouth become public decency concerns 🙂 ), the city will not need to address its own bylaw once the province clears the way.
the greater issue is the lack of enforcement. while most people have respect for others and wear masks around others, despite their take on masking, there remains the risk presented by some that flout the law. at this juncture i wish to out WINNERS, a store that has consistently permitted LOSERS to shop there without masks. it is not that employees enjoy dealing with the maskless ignorants that refuse to care for others, it is that there is no enforcement, and WINNERS itself – at its highest level – does little to nothing to protect its employees and keep those ignoramuses out of their store.
what can others do to support and protect the minimum wage earner from the ignorant, when the system will not? leave the store whenever there is a maskless stooge that is being permitted to shop, and further still, one might let a manager know why they are refusing to shop there. a small disservice to oneself, and a big help to those that otherwise completely lack reasonable support regarding their safety. enforcing the masking of shoppers should now be a workplace safety issue on top of the so-called legal “ramifications.”
meanwhile, an acceptable law that is without apt consequence renders that law nothing more than bs.
i am a net negative 2 lol! why no respect and support for those that have to work while maskless idiots insist on imperiling the workers’ health? or, is one so hopelessly addicted to shopping at winners that the addiction trumps the safety of the minimum wage worker being placed at risk without support from?
The Provincial Bylaw is adequate! Funny, Lethbridge City Council and in particlar current Mayor are bent and determined to regulate and dictate to us residents. Medicine Hat, on the other hand did not have a mask bylaw in the beginning and now with the Provincial guidelines in place, have no municipal bylaw regarding masks! Interesting that Medicine Hat has and had significantly lower per capita incidence of covid 19…. even they have been without a mask bylaw????
Agreed HP. Based on n=1 the statistics show that that having a municipal mask bylaw in addition to the provincial one must be the cause of spreading Covid19.
i suspected as much myself…diabolical 🙂
I won’t even begin to point out the logical fallacies in your argument 🙂
Anyway, the bottom line is that masks aren’t 100% effective. So how effective are they? Well, the important thing is that the effectiveness percentage number, is a number above 0.
i was highly skeptical back in the early weeks, and then some, but i am now quite convinced masks make a pretty big difference. obviously not 100%, but i know no one that has had a flu or cold this past year (absolutely novel for me, because i would either or both every year), and only one person that has had covid (minimal symptoms). given that i have not stayed secluded, including going to the gym 5 days a week when that was allowed by god (i wore my mask as per the regulations), and given how few flus and colds have made the rounds this past year, i have to defer to the mask as the difference maker.