Rob Murray: I’m speaking with Banff’s Acting Mayor Corrie DiManno. We’re talking about masks this morning. A lot of conversation about that at Banff Council on Monday. First of all, you approved a budget line for some mask distribution. What can you tell us about this?

Corrie DiManno: We approved having safety ambassadors, seven days a week, handing out 100,000 masks that we got from the Government of Alberta. These folks are going to be in popular areas throughout the Banff town site. So whether that’s in the pedestrian zone downtown, or by the pedestrian bridge, or the intercept parking lot, they’re just going to be handing out masks throughout.

RM: Why did you feel it was important to do this as a council?

CD: This, as well as the exploration of mandating masks, go hand in hand. It will help get masks into the hands of people and it’ll help raise awareness that wearing a mask is going to help protect our community and those who visit.

RM: I think it’s sometimes difficult to keep that physical distancing right now. I saw some pictures of Banff Avenue this past weekend. It’s become pretty busy in Banff, hasn’t it?

CD: It’s one of those things where we didn’t know what to expect and then you see it in action. You’re right, the closure has been very popular and it is hard to maintain that six feet of distance when people are moving in both directions. Because of the popularity of the closure, we are looking at what else we can do to make sure that this is safe for everyone. The route that council wants to go is mandating masks.

RM: A draft bylaw being prepared about mandatory masks. What can you tell us about some of the ideas that are out there right now?

CD: One of the ways is for indoors, so anything that’s accessible to the public, mandating masks in those spaces. The second is for that pedestrian zone in the downtown core.

RM: I believe if this goes forward, it would be the first outdoor mask wearing bylaw in Canada. Is that correct?

CD: That’s what administration is saying, yes, according to their research.

RM: As a municipality, are there any legal issues that need to be explored as to whether you can actually do this sort of thing?

CD: Absolutely. That’s what administration is doing right now. They’re looking at the legalities, if we have the authority, and how we would even enforce something like this. They’re going to come back with those details to council in August,

RM: There’s a big difference between requesting people do things and mandating or forcing people to do things. Have you been hearing any controversy about this idea?

CD: I think at the global level there’s a lot of conversation around this idea and controversy around this idea, but the Town of Banff has always leaned on education. So I’m hopeful that even just having this conversation about wanting to mandate, that will help inform people of the benefits of that and how it can keep everyone safe.

RM: It seems like throughout the pandemic the Town of Banff has been very proactive when it comes to public safety. There were the checkstops that were set up early on. Is that an accurate assessment?

CD: Absolutely. The Town of Banff is trying it’s best to be proactive versus reactive, and preventative. I think we’ve seen that with the low amount of cases that we’ve had in Banff during this pandemic. Unfortunately, we are up to two new cases now. I think that just shows that we’re not immune to any kind of second wave. The community has done such a good job of preventing the spread of COVID. It would be so unfortunate to undo all that hard work.

RM: What kind of support have you been hearing in the community about both mandatory masks and some of the other measures you’ve taken?

CD: Council has received a lot of feedback on masks, specifically requesting masks. That helped us make this decision that we made on Monday. It’s nice when residents rally around an initiative. It makes you feel that you’re really pushing forward and an idea from the community. As far as the checkstops go, I think many Banffites were very pleased with that, to feel like we were doing our best to protect them from the virus.

RM: So what’s next for this draft mandatory mask bylaw?

CD: Administration will do the research that we talked about in terms of legalities and the authority and the enforcement pieces. Then they’re going to return to council in August, hopefully with draft bylaws on both of these indoor and outdoor mandating of masks. In the meantime, I hope the discussion lets people know that this is council’s intention, so hopefully they’ll just begin wearing masks before we have to go down the road of making it mandatory.

Filed under: Banff, Banff Council, covid-19