Mayor Ted Clugston at the city's COVID-19 update on Aug. 18. (Photo Courtesy of Colton McKee)

By Chris Brown

Watching closely

City taking ‘wait-and-see approach’ on mask bylaw

Aug 18, 2020 | 2:25 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – Medicine Hat has no plans to implement a mandatory mask bylaw, preferring instead to leave it to citizens and businesses to decide on mask-wearing and requirements.

This comes as more businesses make masks a condition of entering their stores and more people don them, and other municipalities pass bylaws with varying degrees of restrictions.

“I like to quote a very intelligent person who says, ‘What’s the problem you’re trying to fix?’ That would be Merrick,” Mayor Ted Clugston said, referring to the city’s director of emergency management Merrick Brown, at the city’s COVID-19 update on Tuesday. “It’s a tool that we could use when perhaps a problem becomes evident in Medicine Hat.”

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Clugston said that for the most part residents in Medicine Hat are behaving when it comes to the public health guidelines and the city has some of the lowest numbers in the province.

“We are going to continue to take a wait-and-see approach as a council on the mask bylaw.”

He pointed to the city’s decision not to declare a state of local emergency in the pandemic’s early days as an example of the city not overreacting as other municipalities did.

Clugston said the city is not being cavalier on the issue, as he says he’s heard, and has discussed certain trigger points that may change the city’s approach.

There is no objective trigger point set yet, but Clugston mentioned being placed on the provincial watch list and a not-yet-determined cases per capita number as possibilities.

The city is also watching for a “general sense” that the community has a quickly rising, widespread number of cases.

Clugston did ask residents to wear their masks if they feel the need to, and if they or their family members have a pre-existing condition or are immunodeficient.

“And please, please try to get along, and respect those that aren’t (wearing masks),” the mayor said, and asked people to support local businesses whether or not they are requiring masks.

Brown encouraged people to continue following the public health guidelines and recommendations and that everyone’s approach to safety is key.

“One even in particular to that and one decision that people can make is stay home if you’re sick. “That has been proven to be the number one and best control out there,” he said.

The mayor also touted the success of the Medicine Hat Business Innovation Grant program, saying it’s fully subscribed and the first $500,000 has been dispersed.

“The money multiplier effect of that will go on for months, maybe even years because we’ve acquired local contractors and local businesses to use other local businesses and so money is constantly respent inside the economy,” he said, adding council and administration will put another $500,000 into the Entre-Corp program to help stimulate and help businesses recover.

More to come…