Mayor John Higham tackled the question of masks, and why they aren’t mandated in Sackville, in the town hall hosted Monday evening by the Tantramar COVID-19 Task Force.
Higham said that a mandatory mask bylaw in Sackville would be susceptible to challenge by the provincial government, whose authority supersedes town council.
Currently in New Brunswick, masks are only mandatory inside if you can’t reasonably maintain 2 metres of distance between yourself and others. Both Chief Medical Officer Jennifer Russell and Premier Blaine Higgs have said time and again that this means people should always carry a mask with them.
At their August meeting, Sackville town council discussed the possibility of a mandatory mask bylaw. At that time, CAO Jamie Burke told councillors the town’s legal counsel is not clear on whether the town has the jurisdiction to require people to wear masks. He also pointed out that a mask bylaw would involve a process at council and three readings at public meetings.
More of a concern, he said, was the idea of enforcement. With one bylaw officer on duty, he said he worried the phone would ring off the hook, especially when students started returning to town in September.
On Monday evening, Mayor Higham said there’s a reason no other municipalities in New Brunswick have come out with a mask bylaw.
“So the advice was, although the Chief Medical Officer of Health made a public reference that municipalities can do it, none in New Brunswick have done so. And it’s because of this quandary, that the way we are structured, it probably won’t work.”
Higham pointed out that in neighbouring Nova Scotia, the mandatory mask rules are not coming from municipalities, but rather from the provincial government.
“And on that basis and the problems we saw of a local bylaw ever getting effectively introduced, we wrote under my signature to our Chief Medical Officer of Health, after our last council meeting, and asked her to reconsider how she had worded the order for masks, and to make it more compatible with that issued in Nova Scotia. Because that’s what we’re hearing people would like to see.”
Higham says he has yet to hear back from Jennifer Russell in response to his letter. [You can check out the letter by clicking here.]
Task Force volunteer Pat Estabrooks said that perhaps the group would consider also sending a letter to Russell, to echo the plea for a provincial mask rule.
After Nova Scotia’s rule came into effect, Russell said a similar rule was not off the table for New Brunswick, but she also reiterated that masks were already mandatory in the province, anytime 2 metres of distance can’t be maintained.
The provincial rules in Nova Scotia require masks indoors only, and only in public spaces. Private offices and other places with no general public access are exempt. There’s also an exception for people once seated in restaurants.
When the rule came into effect, Nova Scotia began distributing free cloth masks at all public libraries and museums in the province.
Landlord John Lafford was also on Monday’s panel, and responded to a question about whether businesses had the authority to require a mask of patrons. As Lafford explained, they do.
“The direct answer to the question is yes, people are allowed to demand and request a mask. I think the business operational plan is individualized for each and every business. So there are those who think that the mask is the proper thing to do for the well being of the majority the people. It’s their right. It’s their business, it’s their right.”
A Narrative research poll in July found that 72% of New Brunswickers supported making masks mandatory in public spaces.
