SUNDRE — Council received correspondence from two local physicians who expressed concerns about potential COVID-19 spreader events in the community.
In their letter, Drs. Carla Foolen and Eugene Landsbergen also implored council to take more proactive steps in protecting the community.
Linda Nelson, chief administrative officer, read aloud the letter addressed to Town of Sundre Mayor Terry Leslie for the record during the regular Dec. 7 meeting of council conducted by teleconference.
“We are writing to you as we are extremely concerned about events happening in Sundre this weekend — especially the indoor Christmas market and Sundown in Sundre,” said Nelson.
“With COVID-19 cases rising in Mountain View County as well as in Sundre itself, these are events where the virus could spread very easily, even when people are wearing masks.”
The physicians stated they would be saddened to see any more people in the area falling ill with the virus, and were also worried about Sundre’s small hospital’s ability to cope.
“More than half of the doctors have given up privilege to work there. There is high potential that our hospital and our health-care workers would not be able to handle a surge in cases.”
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The doctors concluded by urgently asking for council’s help in keeping the community safe by not allowing any such gatherings of the kind for the time being.
“Maybe then, we would still all have a tiny chance of seeing our families at Christmas. Please take our concerns, expertise and knowledge of the current situation in Alberta at heart.”
The mayor sought clarification with regards to what council, administration and staff are legally able to do, or not.
Kevin Heerema, the municipality’s director of emergency management as well as the local peace officer, informed council the Christmas farmers’ market had previously been approved by Alberta Health Services (AHS) as well as Alberta Agriculture and Forestry.
Prior to the event happening, Heerema said a representative from AHS had spoken both with the municipality as well as the market’s organizers.
“My understanding is all protocols were followed,” he said, adding for example that masks were mandatory, and capacity inside the community centre was limited to 25 per cent, as permitted under the restrictions in place at the time.
And while Sundown in Sundre was not technically an official event this year, there usually is one evening ahead of the holidays when businesses stay open late and offer deals, he said.
“If we were to restrict that, I don’t know legally how well we could do without declaring a state of local emergency,” he said.
“And at this time, I don’t know if there is criteria for declaring that state of local emergency.”
A state of local emergency, he explained, can be declared only in the event a municipality cannot handle a given situation with available resources, or when extraordinary powers are required under the act.
“So, in this case, we got to ask ourselves if we do need those extraordinary powers and why, and if we want to further restrict our public and our businesses, and why we’d want to do that.”
Further elaborating, Nelson informed council the market’s organizers provided a lengthy list of all the measures followed. They included — among many others — making available immediately upon entry hand sanitizer and free masks for anybody who did not have one, and physical distancing was observed with arrows and ropes guiding people in a one-way path, with lines spaced apart outside of the entrance for times when capacity was reached.
“This is all very serious and must be taken very seriously, but we believe that the vendors did a really, really good job in ensuring that all of the guidelines were followed,” she said.
“I understand that there were a few people who did approach who were not following the guidelines, and they were not permitted access to the market. So, that’s how seriously they did take this event.”
The mayor said the doctors’ letter is one to take seriously, and thanked administration for looking into how the market was conducted.
“That is not to diminish the fact that doctors and health-care professionals in our community are becoming extremely concerned with rising numbers in our area as well as across the province,” said Leslie.
“They are fearful, they are understaffed, and they are getting more weary than any of us can understand,” he said, adding provincial health measures should be reinforced.
“We have to be in this together, we have to be part of the solution.”
Coun. Charlene Preston said that because of the high number of seniors in the community, she already felt since the beginning of the pandemic that a proactive approach was preferable to reactive measures.
“At that time, I was criticized for asking so many questions,” said Preston.
“My proactive approach was not supported at that time,” she said, adding the guidance was to follow the advice of Alberta Health Services.
Although grateful the community has not experienced a huge number of cases, she also recognized the province-wide surge, and encourages the use of masks.
“But that being said, AHS is the one that’s in charge here. And health falls under the umbrella of the province,” she said.
“As a local councillor, I’m not a health professional, and I was not elected to make health decisions.”
While she understood the urgency expressed by the doctors in their letter as well as the importance of keeping the community safe, Preston said in this instance, “AHS is the ring leader” and that the health authority’s guidelines should be respected.
Coun. Richard Warnock said numbers are not yet decreasing and that more could well be expected in the coming days and weeks.
Warnock said he was pleased the market’s organizers strictly followed guidelines, adding it was no different than wearing a mask, distancing as well as following the arrows in a grocery store, and agreed it’s not council’s role to shut down events like the market.
Coun. Rob Wolfe said the physicians raised valid concerns, but also felt council would be doing an injustice by shutting down operations that are adhering to provincial health measures.
A motion by Preston to accept the correspondence as information carried unopposed.
