Should masks be mandatory in St. Albert?

If Alberta's chief medical officer of health and the province decide to make masks mandatory, St. Albert Mayor Cathy Heron said the city will follow its lead – but council mandating face masks on its own would present too many challenges.  

"It seems unco-ordinated to now ask municipalities to take the lead on it," she said.

The question of mandatory masks came up at the July 8 meeting of St. Albert's COVID-19 recovery task force.

With St. Albert's close proximity to neighbouring municipalities in the Edmonton Metropolitan Area, unco-ordinated action could result in a haphazard, spotty approach to rules on face masks, Heron explained in an interview.

Heron said she saw a similar effect happen when municipalities drafted legislation around marijuana legalization.  

"You don't get co-ordination, you don't get buy-in, you don't get compliance. You get a lot of confusion," she said, adding people travel between municipalities constantly in the St. Albert area. Different rules for different regions wouldn't work, she noted.

Nevertheless, she said she strongly encourages residents to wear masks in addition to all other safety measures.

The mayor's comments come as the province began distributing 20 million more non-medical face masks to Albertans on July 13. Still, Premier Jason Kenney reiterated the province will not make it mandatory to wear face masks in public spaces.

"To quote Dr. Hinshaw, we can’t enforce our way out of the pandemic, and the vast majority of Albertans I don’t think need to be told to do the right thing," Kenney said during a news conference. 

A new study from the non-profit Angus Reid Institute found more Canadians are concerned about contracting the virus now than they were in the last three months, with three in five people saying they are worried about getting sick.

Despite this, a number of Canadians still aren't adopting a key mitigation suggestion from public health officials: mask usage.

Just one in five respondents – 20 per cent – said they always wear a mask when they go out in public, while 35 per cent say they do so “most of the time.” Thirty-two per cent said they rarely wear one and 13 per cent said they never do. 

Residents weigh in 

So what's the big deal? Is it an issue of discomfort? Of not wanting to be forced to do something?

University of Alberta professor of law and public health Tim Caulfield said masks "have become a symbol of your ideology around how to deal with the pandemic. I really think it’s a cultural thing – we’re not used to wearing masks, and I think that with the proper public health messaging, we can change it,” he said.

This may be true for some, but for others, the reasons are more complicated.

For St. Albert resident Heidi Taphorn, face masks act as a barrier to virus transmission, but making them mandatory will present a different kind of barrier for her two-year-old daughter.

Taphorn's daughter was born with hearing loss and wears bilateral hearing aids, relying on them as well as visual cues to communicate. She has worn a hearing aid since she was six months old.

"Facial expression and lip movement is part of that communication for many individuals with hearing loss. So when that's removed (by a face mask), many people are having difficulties," Taphorn explained.

Face masks are uncomfortable for her daughter to wear around her sensitive ears. She has ripped off the face mask before because of the irritation, which in turn causes her hearing aids to fall out or become damaged.

Taphorn said she is supportive of people wearing face masks and wears one herself frequently. But if municipalities or the province choose to make masks mandatory, there needs to be very clear protection for vulnerable individuals who are unable to wear them, she said.

"I don't want to be standing outside of places having to advocate for my daughter again, and again, and again," she said.

"When someone hasn't had to consider what that might look like, or what that experience might be for someone else, it might not seem like a big deal. But when you are in that position, you need to advocate for yourself constantly. It is just one more barrier for people who have already had a tremendous amount of barriers in their life."

But are the existing recommendations doing enough?

From July 9 to July 15, 602 new cases were identified in the province. Of those cases, 60 per cent have not yet been linked to any known source.

"This is a reminder that COVID-19 can spread quickly and cases can rise rapidly if we don't all do our part," said Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta's chief medical officer of health.

Making masks mandatory can encourage more people to wear them, but it doesn't mean the new rules have to come with enforcement, said Edmonton radiologist Dr. Matthew Butcher.

Butcher is one of several medical experts involved with Masks4Canada, an initiative urging governments to make masks mandatory in public places. 

"I think it's better if it was mandated and very loosely enforced, or even not enforced at all. If that's the norm, most people are going to go along with a law like that," he continued, referencing rules around bike helmets and seatbelts as examples.  

"The benefit for a high mask use isn't a linear benefit. It's something that compounds, like compound interest. So the higher the percentage of people who wear a mask, the more effective it is."

He pointed to the Toronto Transit Commission's findings that nine in 10 riders are complying with the bylaw requiring them to wear face masks on public transit, despite the agency's decision not to enforce the new rule.  

Wetaskiwin resident Hazen Evenson, who works in St. Albert, knows how devastating COVID-19 can be. 

Evenson lost his grandfather to COVID-19 in March over a matter of days. He was the first person known to die from the virus in the province, he said.

"Once it latches on to you, you feel like you're drowning the whole time. In addition, if you do survive, you will never breathe the same way again," he said. 

Losing his grandfather to COVID-19 solidified the importance of making public safety recommendations, including social distancing, sanitization and face masks, part of everyday life, he said.

People who choose not to take these measures seriously put the whole community at risk.

"You're putting a lot of people at risk – not just yourself, not just your family, but it could be anybody. I don't feel that's a risk that we should be taking here as a community. We need to make efforts to prevent the spread, especially to protect those who can't protect themselves," he said.

"If you want to watch your family member pass away on Facetime, don't wear a mask. If you don't want to have to go through what my family's gone through, and what about 150 other families have gone through, wear a mask."

– with files from Lucy Haines