OLDS — During town council’s Nov. 30 meeting, Coun. Mary Anne Overwater expressed concern about how indoor and household gatherings that are deemed to be too large under the province’s new COVID-19 restrictions will be handled.
However, chief administrative officer Michael Merritt and community services director Doug Wagstaff expressed confidence that rules and procedures have been well thought out.
“I have a little concern with that,” Overwater said. “Some people get pretty adamant and crazy and this COVID is making people crazy so how is that going to be monitored and handled?
“I don’t want to see a 16 year old get the crap beat out of him because some guy is not adhering to the rules.”
“It’s been well thought out in regards to how enforcement will be dealt with in regards to private residences and other places,” Merritt said.
Wagstaff said in essence, anyone who is concerned that too many people are congregating should contact Alberta Health Services and they’ll take it from there, to decide whether it should be dealt with by police or peace officers.
Under the province’s new COVID-19 restrictions, announced Nov. 24:
• Close contacts must be limited to people in the same household. Indoor social gatherings – even among members of the same cohort – are not permitted.
• People who live alone can have up to the same two non-household contacts for the duration of this restriction.
• Outdoor social gatherings can have up to 10 people.
Wagstaff said local RCMP and peace officers have been in contact regarding the new rules to make sure they’re on the same page when it comes to possible enforcement.
He stressed -- as provincial officials have -- that the emphasis is first on educating apparent violators about what the new rules are and that “blatant and repeat offenders are the issue that (they) would like to be focused on.”
“Otherwise,” said Wagstaff, “they were really strongly asking for the self responsibility of Albertans to adhere to these regulations.”
Coun. Wanda Blatz asked if there are exceptions for people who might be suffering from some type of depression or a mental illness and may thus need to have contact with other people but may not live in a certain household.
“Are there exceptions for those people,” she asked. “Because I think we’re definitely seeing a rise in mental health issues during this COVID period.”
Again, Wagstaff said people would need to look up that answer on Alberta government websites regarding COVID-19.
He noted that under the new rules one person living alone can have up to two non-household contacts and “still have some social interaction that way.”
Also under the new restrictions, businesses aren’t allowed to have more than 25 per cent occupancy in their establishments as per the Alberta Fire Code.
Olds Fire Department Chief Justin Andrew admitted initially his department had a busy few days assisting businesses that had many questions about how that rule applies to them.
"Our fire prevention officer has been assisting many businesses and I feel that the places that had to deal with it, or this was new to them, have likely found the information and are away and running,” he said.
In enhanced zones such as Olds, places of worship are allowed to have up to one-third of their regular attendance. The wearing of masks is mandatory.
Overwater asked Andrew how that’s going.
“I can’t say that we’ve verified in Olds, but we have had no complaints – but I believe all of the places of worship (in Olds) have reduced those numbers and were managing it, based on their own COVID protocols that came from kind of the organization as a whole, I should say,” Andrew said.
“So we feel that they’re managed. But again, like I say, we haven’t had any complaints or concerns raised by anybody.”
