Advocates calling for Edmonton's mask bylaw to be reinstated

EDMONTON -

A grassroots advocacy group is calling on the city to step up when it comes to COVID-19 safety measures.

Act for Edmonton will appear at city hall tomorrow, appealing to councillors to reinstate the city's mandatory mask mandate.

"We're really concerned about kids, we're really concerned about frontline workers. A lot of children are going to be taking ETS to school every day so we think that a mask mandate is the least that our cities can do and Edmonton has an opportunity to do that," said Bradley Lafortune from Act for Edmonton.

The group says a lot has changed since council repealed the mandate at the end of June; cases are on the rise, the delta variant is becoming more prevalent, and the province is scheduled to end all of its pandemic health measures within days.

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"We just really think that the city can step in where the province has chosen to step away, we have kids who are going to be riding the bus to school, we have kids in daycare and they can't get vaccinated yet so while we see cases on the rise as a result of delta we're looking for the civic government to step in."

He says they're hoping the item will be brought up in tomorrow's special meeting and brought before council next week.

"There's definitely a renewed opportunity for the city to step in," said Lafortune. "We remain hopeful that council will do the right thing."