Mayor Ted Clugston at a May 4 Council Meeting ( Tiffany Goodwein/CHATNewsToday)

By Tiffany Goodwein

Mayor Clugston weighs in on enforcement of defiant businesses

May 4, 2021 | 1:01 AM

MEDICINE HAT, AB- After nearly two weeks of remaining quiet, Mayor Ted Clugston weighed in on a local business that has repeatedly flaunted public health orders, by remaining open despite a closure order issued by Alberta Health Services.

“As everyone knows a mayor doesn’t walk in and shut a business down, and AHS as you have heard it is fluid, they are working behind the scenes. The police will if there are gatherings in private residences, they will perhaps walk in and give them tickets. But when it comes to a business they coordinate with AHS, and the ones that aren’t complying know they are not complying, and we will see what AHS decides to do,” Clugston said.

When pressed about the option of possibly pulling the business licence, Clugston said that option may not be the best either.

“These businesses know they are in contravention and pulling their business licence, may not stop them as well,” he said.

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READ MORE: Still no answers why defying business remains open

At a recent Calgary City Council meeting, Mayor Naheed Nenshi called on the courts to do more to uphold the public health orders and expressed frustration that many tickets have been thrown out. In response, Mayor Clugston said the situation regarding enforcement isn’t so black and white.

“I am very sympathetic to people who are losing their houses and losing their livelihoods, while there are people like (Mayor) Nenshi who is taking out a paycheque every two weeks for the past 13 years or so and has never had to face that,” Clugston said,

“The courts, obviously as a mayor of a city I can’t tell the courts what to do, but the courts are throwing these out for a reason, probably because there are too many of them and probably because it is almost impossible to prosecute them all. So maybe Mayor Nenshi would like to give them more resources. Of course, that’s a provincial matter,” he added.

The city’s active case rate is the highest it has ever been at 231 active cases. The city needs to reach 250 active cases in order to be deemed a hot spot by the province.

Mayor Clugston said overall the city has done an exceptional job at keeping case numbers low but further pleaded with the public to keep doing their part.

“Please, we don’t have too much further to go I don’t think, and hopefully we can stay off that hot spot list. I don’t think that is going to happen. I think we are going to end up on it,” he said.

During Monday’s council meeting, the city’s director of emergency management told council the city is preparing for restrictions in the event that it does become a hot spot. Brown said the restrictions will have implications at the city level.

“From the city’s perspective, all of our recreation facilities are forced to close. That includes personal training, so Family Leisure Centre, Kinplex, youth sports they are all out. So all of those activities that children participate on a regular basis, are out for a specified period of time. So while it may be a short-lived restriction. These are all still restrictions that impact us,” Merrick Brown said.

Brown told council that some of the city’s operations have been impacted by COVID-19, despite having very low cases within their own staff. He said that the city has never seen the staffing impacts like they have right now.

“Where we have been seeing our impacts organizationally is what they deem as close contacts. We are seeing a far higher rate of our own staff having to isolate based on being a close contact,” Brown said, noting the impacts are across the board.

To mitigate the staffing issues, according to Brown, the city has implemented contingency staff to fill in when another person needs to quarantine. Those staff, according to Brown are often staff who work in different departments but are still trained and capable of filling in when the need arises.