Alberta drops majority of COVID-19 rules, moves to prevent cities from instating own public health measures

Alberta's premier marked the second reopening of the province during the COVID-19 pandemic on Tuesday.

"I have to say: It was a bit odd coming in here not wearing a mask, but it was also pretty awesome," Premier Jason Kenney chuckled, stepping up to a podium in a restaurant in Red Deer that morning.

Overall, the affair mirrored but featured less pizzazz than summer 2021, when Kenney announced for the first time Alberta would be rescinding most of its public health measures. Then, he spoke in Edmonton's lush river valley with the capital city's skyline behind him and a billboard at his side that read "Open for Summer." Weeks later, he'd apologize for making the shift too quickly.

But Tuesday, Kenney's only prop was a podium that read "Open for Business" and he offered no guarantees about what COVID-19 would bring in the future.

"We have two choices here," Kenney told reporters.

"We can either say we're going to spend the rest of our lives in fear, waiting for a much more virulent mutation of COVID-19, or we can say with widespread population protection, we are determined to get on with our lives and that's what Alberta's choosing to do."

'FINALLY TURNED A MAJOR CORNER': KENNEY

At midnight on Tuesday, limits on social gatherings and large venue capacity, school and public masking requirements, and Alberta's mandatory work-from-home order expired. Step 2 of Alberta's reopening plan also ends youth activity screening, other school requirements like cohorting, and liquor service curfews.

However, masking requirements will remain in place in high-risk settings, including at provincial health sites, continuing care centres and public transit. And, anyone with COVID-19 symptoms or a positive test result must still isolate. The rules will stay for at least three weeks, until Alberta sees a "significant step down" in hospital admissions, Kenney said.

The reopening "does not mean that COVID-19 is not still a concern in Alberta," the province's health minister, Jason Copping, noted, promising his department would continue to monitor trends and variants.

But the officials didn't hold back from declaring a kind of victory.

"We have finally turned a major corner on COVID-19," Kenney said.

"All of the data both here in Alberta and right across the world says that the worst of COVID is behind us and that this disease that has changed our lives in so many ways is no longer an open-ended threat to our lives and livelihoods, from all that we know today."

TOO MUCH TOO FAST, SAY EXPERTS

Kenney referenced wastewater data, Alberta's test positivity rate – which has dropped from a peak of 40 per cent to under 20 per cent – and vaccination rates as signals the province is equipped to forge on.

According to the most recent data, just over 90 per cent of Albertans aged 12 and older are vaccinated with one dose of vaccine, and 86.5 per cent with two doses.

The province's number of COVID-19 hospital patients began to fall the second week of February, coming down from a high of 1,681 on Feb. 7. Since the start of the month, 295 Albertans have died due to COVID-19, including 40 in the past seven days. Both numbers are subject to change as historical data is updated.

Tuesday's data update was limited due to technical issues, but listed estimates of 1,225 COVID-19 patients in hospital including 80 in intensive care units. No new information was made available on deaths. 

On Monday, Alberta Health reported 14 more COVID-19 deaths, a total of 1,224 COVID-19 hospital patients, and 9,000 known active cases. It added 1,435 cases over the weekend.

Limits to testing capacity and eligibility mean Alberta's actual number of active cases is likely many times higher. Edmonton-based infectious diseases Jason Tetro – known as "the Germ Guy" – estimates Alberta's true COVID-19 case count is 10 times the known number.

He'd prefer to see Albera report a fraction of the new cases it does every day before easing restrictions.

"Two cases per 100,000, 21 days. If you can actually maintain that, then doesn't matter if you're talking about something like SARS-Cov2 or Ebola… That's when you can lift something," Tetro commented.

"Because we've now seen several times that when we start to open on the downslope, we start to go back up again."

Edmonton ICU physician Dr. Darren Markland said he appreciated eventually needing to move forward, but called the reopening a "very big shift in mentality. And I don't think it's one we're quite ready for."

He says the science doesn't suggest the world is done with coronavirus, and that prudence – such as keeping some health measures in place – would set it up to face any potential future wave.

"If we are going to really take this as endemic, what we have to do is have significantly more health care resources," he added.

"I need beds. I need staff. I need people to deal with the consequences."

Kenney in Red Deer warned against creating "a constant psychological background noise in our society of an elevated fear for a disease that is now less severe."

MGA AMENDMENT AN OVERREACH

Alberta's premier also revealed Tuesday that his government planned to make amendments to the Municipal Government Act to prevent cities from imposing their own public health measures, a move seen by Edmonton's mayor as an attempt to circumvent the power of local governments.

Despite provincial masking rules ending at midnight, Edmonton's face covering bylaw is due to remain in effect until at least March 8, when council is scheduled to debate keeping or ending it. A survey where residents can offer their opinion is open until March 7.

"What Edmonton wants to do is not to respect the choice of people not to wear masks. So what we're embracing here is choice and respect for those choices," Kenney argued.

Edmonton Mayor Amarjeet Sohi is concerned the amendment, if made, would be manipulated.

"Every time a municipality makes a decision that province doesn't like, will they continue to abuse the MGA in a way in taking that ability away?" he asked. "What happens if a province doesn't like our smoking bylaw tomorrow?"

He also said the amendment would limit the city's ability to react to a future COVID-19 wave, if one were to occur.

But Kenney suggested Edmonton continuing to have a mask bylaw – if that was what its council decided on – would create confusion and division and was now unnecessary. Public health, Kenney countered, is the province's jurisdiction.

"I am concerned that if municipalities have this power, it will increasingly become a political not a public health issue," he told media.

"I think we've almost become used to these things [masks] as though it's normal. This is an extraordinary intervention in people's lives… We've always said that public health restrictions in Alberta will only be there as long as they are absolutely necessary to prevent overloading our hospitals. They should not be there for one day longer."

Sohi rejected the accusations of virtue signalling and political grandstanding.

Alberta Municipalities president Cathy Heron called Kenney's plan heavy handed. 

"Instead of making the quick changes to the act in response to something they disagree with, we need to work together and try to find those solutions," she told CTV News Edmonton Wednesday morning. 

Edmonton made masks mandatory in all public indoor spaces as of Aug. 1, 2020, four months before Kenney's government did so across the province.

"At the time, the province of Alberta expected us to step up because they were not willing to step up. So we did. Now we have a bylaw in place, and there's a process to reconsider that bylaw, and we have initiated that process," Sohi said.

Heron echoed the sentiment. 

"[The provincial government] actually very publicly said it's in the better interest for residents if the local government made that decision. They were encouraging us to make our masking bylaws to suit the needs of our community and context," she commented. 

"Here we are now, a year and a bit later, and the conversation has completely switched gears. It's a 180."

Sohi said he will be consulting the city's legal department and other municipal organizations on the city's options to challenge the amendment.

Heron said she would bring the issue up in a meeting with Kenney on Wednesday. 

As for Tuesday's council meeting, Sohi confirmed: "Absolutely we will have a meeting on Tuesday and we will have a robust discussion.

"That discussion will be in the public, and we will do that after listening to Edmontinians, their views, and we'll make a decision based on what is good for our city."

Calgary decided to end its own mask bylaw ahead of the province moving to Step 2 of its reopening plan.

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Chelan Skulski