On July 1st Albertans will be able to breathe a great, unmasked sigh of relief as the province lifts its pandemic restrictions. That is unless you live in one of the two major cities. In that case, citizens may still end up legally obligated to wear stifling face coverings while indoors until the end of July or even possibly the end of 2021. The mayors of both Edmonton and Calgary appear to be intransigent when it comes to lifting the mask bylaws in the cities in concert with the rest of the province. If Edmonton and Calgary maintain their mask bylaws beyond July 1st, their local businesses will pay the price..Both Edmonton and Calgary are surrounded by bedroom communities that compete for the consumer dollars from the cities. Large retail complexes such as CrossIron Mills mall and Costco have set up locations just outside Calgary’s city limits in order to escape high city taxes and draw city customers. In maintaining mask mandates beyond July 1st, cities will be giving the businesses outside of their boundaries a huge competitive advantage. Business owners in communities such as Cochrane and Okotoks will be thrilled with this of course, but struggling urban business owners may be pushed over the edge. Alberta summers are notoriously short and to be at a competitive disadvantage for the entire month of July would be crippling..Mayor Naheed Nenshi and his faction within Calgary’s city council have never been terribly sympathetic to the plight of businesses within the city. In 2019, Calgary’s small business owners were pushed to desperation due to massive city tax hikes. It spawned a rally outside of city hall that forced a reluctant city council to relent on business tax hikes for the short term. Calgary’s city council and administration are hopelessly tone-deaf to the needs of the business community..The COVID-19 pandemic is in full retreat within Alberta right now by every measure. Alberta is in a much better position than Texas was in when that state dropped all restrictions. Doomsayers howled from the rooftops that Texas had opened too early and that disaster was inevitable. The disaster never came and Texans have been enjoying normal, free living for months. There is no rational reason for Alberta not to follow the lead of Texas now..The motivation to maintain mask bylaws in Edmonton and Calgary is likely a political one, rather than a health or safety one. Mayor Nenshi and Mayor Iveson both have ideological differences with Premier Jason Kenney. Premier Kenney has put a lot of political capital into the long-delayed – on again, off again – reopening strategy. He has promised Albertans “the best summer ever”. While they certainly don’t want to see a reemergence of the pandemic, the mayors of Edmonton & Calgary would be content if Albertans had a miserable summer at Kenney’s expense. Keeping citizens masked in the stifling heat of summer would go a long way towards achieving that political end. Albertans are already less than enthralled with the UCP. Nenshi and Iveson would profit politically from keeping it that way..Most people despise wearing masks. Aside from the discomfort in wearing them, they are a dehumanizing symbol of arbitrary state-imposed controls. The benefits of mask mandates are highly questionable at the best of times. With the rest of the province dropping the mask laws, it will be very difficult to convince city dwellers to carry on wearing masks. This puts businesses in a difficult position as we will see an increasing number of people defying the bylaws and entering businesses showing their faces. Employees do not want to be put into the position of being bylaw enforcers, yet that’s exactly what happens under city bylaws. A business can be fined if it appears that they have let people patronize them without forcing them to wear masks. Staff and owners don’t deserve to be put into this untenable position..Pandemic control is outside of the jurisdiction of municipal governments. With the state of local emergency now having been lifted within Calgary, public health laws should be considered to be outside of municipal authority. Fines issued under the mask bylaw will assuredly be challenged in court and likely will be dismissed once the provincewide regulation is lifted. Do we really need to pressure our courts further on this point of principle?.I am looking forward to shopping without a mask. I can’t wait until I go to the washroom in a restaurant without going through the idiotic motions of masking up between my table and the door. It is going to be fantastic to be able to see people’s facial expressions again as we interact. I am willing to take my business outside of the city’s limits in order to enjoy all of these things and we can rest assured that many other Albertans feel the same way. While some people may not have the will or ability to leave the city in order to do business, many will choose to stay at home and get products delivered rather than deal with masked transactions. It’s a win for Amazon.com, but not for local businesses..There is nothing to stop business owners from maintaining their own mask policies even after the bylaw is lifted. People who prefer to wear masks are more than welcome to carry on with them. Those who believe that it is unreasonably dangerous to open the world back up can stay locked within their homes if they choose. Businesses and people within Alberta’s major cities must be able to make the same choices as those in the rest of the province..Calgary City Council is meeting this week in order to discuss options for their mask mandate. They have three options before them. They can repeal the bylaw on July 1st with the rest of the province, they can drag the bylaw out until the end of July, or they can let the bylaw go until its scheduled lifting at the end of 2021..If the cities maintain their mask bylaws beyond the July 1st provincial reopening, they will be unfairly be putting their businesses at a competitive disadvantage and prolonging the misery of their citizens. City councils will be well served to end the bylaw on July 1st as they will be facing the electorate this fall..Cory Morgan is the Alberta Political Columnist for the Western Standard and Host of the Cory Morgan Show
