As Canada enters yet another wave of the pandemic, most provincial governments have reacted with a wide range of measures. Unfortunately, Alberta is the exception here. Instead of enacting strict measures, officials told citizens to “just behave, and everything will be fine”. Other than  going back to Step 1 of the transition plan and implementing minimal restrictions, our government has done nothing to “stop the spike”. In using this hands-off approach, the government has shifted responsibility to local authorities, creating disparity and chaos in the province.
The government has shifted responsibility to local authorities, creating disparity and chaos in the province.
Mask On, Mask Off
Right now, Alberta is the only province in Canada without a mask mandate because of this decentralized approach. While other Canadian provinces announced mandatory mask laws in the fall of 2020, Alberta sat on its hands and only “encouraged” citizens to wear masks. Left without direction, local municipalities took responsibility by passing mask bylaws. Calgary announced that masks would be mandatory last November, and Edmonton did this as well, around the same time. Although people are masked up and protected in Alberta’s big cities, the lack of a provincewide mask mandate has put many Albertans at risk.
By refusing to take responsibility for the whole province, Alberta’s government is creating a disparity between citizens in different conditions. In zones with mask mandates, most people are safe. However, significant outbreaks have erupted in zones without mask laws. Fort McMurray is one of the most severe COVID-hit zones in the province, because workers in the surrounding oil fields and work camps are not protected by masks. In these rural work zones, some workers refuse to wear masks, and as a result, these workers contract and spread the virus. The virus affects their close contacts in cities, forming a “hotspot”. Provincewide action could have easily prevented this from happening, but the government decided to do nothing.
In zones with mask mandates, most people are safe. However, significant outbreaks have erupted in zones without mask laws.
A Tale of Two Exam Seasons
A similar problem is happening with schools as the third wave rages on and the provincial government dithers. Officials insist that the province has a “robust plan” to keep students safe, and refuse to close schools. However, in-school transmissions and staffing shortages hit Calgary and Edmonton school boards hard, and these boards moved grades 7-12 online in order to curb the spread of COVID and recover from teacher shortages.
Each school board has decided to deal with the online transition in a different way. While it’s important for each board to address its issues uniquely, this creates disruptions to Alberta’s May 2021 IB exams (held from April 29 to May 20 this year).
Because of the pandemic, the IB organization announced that it will cancel exams in regions where students cannot go to school in person on exam dates. This is where the different approaches from school boards comes in. In Calgary, the CBE stated that students could not attend in-person school on April 29 and 30. As a result, the board cancelled IB exams on those dates. However, in Edmonton and rural Alberta, school boards insist that students can take the exams in person if they are spaced out enough. Students in these regions still need to take exams, even with inadequate online revision and skyrocketing cases.
The provincial government could have shut down all in-person learning and cancelled exams province-wide. But it failed to take action, and as a result, some students can stay safe at home with reduced pressure while other students are forced to take challenging exams in the midst of the third wave.
Lack of Action? Divided Province.
These are only a few examples of how the government has failed to act and devastated the province. Different regions address the pandemic in different ways, giving some regions an unfair advantage over others. Whether it’s wearing masks, or going to school, or going about any other part of life, Alberta’s decentralized action during the pandemic will only result in disaster.
Whether it’s wearing masks, or going to school, or going about any other part of life, Alberta’s decentralized action during the pandemic will only result in disaster.
All information sources are either from my own experience, or embedded as hyperlinks in the article.
