Alberta, Canada government plans to ban municipalities from enacting COVID-19 restrictions.
QUICK FACTS:
- Alberta municipalities are banned from putting COVID-19 health restrictions in place, according to The Epoch Times.
- As early as next week, legislation to amend the Municipal Government Act (MGA) will be introduced, according to Premier Jason Kenney.
- The legislation will take away local municipalities’ ability to enact “their own separate public health restrictions.”
GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS’ STATEMENTS:
- “We are concerned that a patchwork of separate policies across the province could just lead to greater division, confusion, enforcement difficulty, with no compelling public health rationale,” Kenney said at a press conference on March 1. “And we certainly shouldn’t allow political science to be substituted for public health science.”
- There is, however, one holdout municipality that still requires masks and announced on March 1 that they will continue to do so: “The City of Edmonton’s Temporary Mandatory Face Coverings bylaw remains in place and requires all individuals 2 years of age and older to wear a face-covering in Edmonton’s indoor public spaces and public vehicles until further action is taken.”
BACKGROUND:
- Canada’s COVID restrictions have made headlines since the Freedom Convoy set up a protest in Ottawa, the nation’s capital, to protest against the restrictions.
- The most intense protests against restrictions centered around the mandates to receive the COVID-19 vaccine in order to work.
