Enforcement not practical, but mask usage will be monitored, says Higgs
At a press conference late Thursday afternoon, Premier Blaine Higgs announced that masks would be mandatory in most indoor public places in New Brunswick, as of midnight that night.
The rules are similar to those already in effect in Nova Scotia.
All public spaces where the public and employees interact, such as retail businesses, malls, service centres, places of worship, restaurants and bars will now have a mandatory mask rule. In bars and restaurants, people will of course be exempt from the rule while eating.
Masks are also mandatory in indoor common areas like lobbies, elevators and hallways, and other public shared spaces.
Children under two are exempt from wearing masks, as well as those with a medical condition that prevents them from wearing one.
Higgs said that when officials observed whether or not people were following existing public health rules, adherence was between 11% and 49% across the province.
But Higgs said enforcement won’t be a focus at the outset of the new mask rule.
“We will never enforce all of this,” Higgs said. “It isn’t it isn’t conceivable.”
Higgs explained to reporters he doesn’t believe that “people think they’re getting away with something because they can go out and contaminate someone else by not wearing a mask.”
“That’s not what this is about,” said the Premier. “That’s not what New Brunswick is about. That’s not why we’re leading the country in performance on COVID. It’s because people in the province have done just the opposite. They’ve actually looked after each other, and they’ve actually gone the extra mile.”
Higgs said the Manoir Notre Dame outbreak is an eye opener for New Brunswickers. “It’s saying, you know, this is very real. This stuff we’re watching around us is real.”
Although he doesn’t think enforcement across the province is practical, he says adherence to the rule will be monitored. “We will decide in terms of what level of adherence we get, whether it’s good enough and where the exposures may be,” said Higgs.
He said he is confident that, “people are going to say, okay, I can do my part. It’s one of those things, you know, I may not like it, but I understand why. And I believe we are at a position now where people in our province will very much understand why, and will want to be part of the solution.”
Higgs said the province has not formulated a plan to distribute reusable cloth masks to those who may not already have them, though he won’t rule it out in future.
“We’ll be monitoring and working closely with businesses and other associations,” he said. “If mask availability is a problem or sourcing masks is a problem… we will will work with them to ensure that’s possible.”
“It isn’t something we have on our radar right now,” he said, “but with a mandatory mask program it could be something we need to look at for sure.”
In advance of Nova Scotia’s mandatory masks order, public libraries and museums distributed free reusable cloth masks to the public, and also to businesses interested in having them available to patrons.
