Government, not businesses, should enforce COVID-19 restrictions: Notley

Alberta’s opposition leader is calling on the premier to better enforce COVID-19 rules as the province prepares to lift some restrictions on Monday.

Last Friday, Premier Jason Kenney announced Alberta would be lifting some restrictions around in-person dining and gym closures.

The new rules that will come into effect for gyms on Monday will allow only one-on-one training. Multiple pairs can be in the facility at one time, but pairs must keep a three-metre distance and not interact with one another.

As for restaurants, people will only be able to dine with those they live with and one person from each party will need to leave contact information.

It doesn’t go far enough for NDP leader Rachel Notley.

“Let’s think about that for a moment,” she said while appearing on 630 CHED Mornings with Chelsea Bird and Shaye Ganam.

“We’re going to ask a 20-year-old server to enforce that rule when the premier cannot enforce the simple rule of open versus closed. You know, that doesn’t make sense. So we have to have clear rules and then we need to ensure that people follow them.”

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A number of businesses and organizations across the province have been flouting COVID-19 restrictions. One in particular, a church in Parkland County, has been seeing 300 maskless people for its weekly service.

Alberta’s chief medical officer of health says she can’t enforce the rules, while Kenney said his government has always taken the approach to educate first, then ticket if needed.

But he pleaded with faith organizations in particular to follow the rules while also appearing on 630 CHED on Wednesday.

“We’ve worked really hard in this province to allow within these public health constraints to allow for continued freedom of worship to happen with a 15 percent capacity,” he said “In many other provinces have shut down places of worship altogether.

“I would just say to perhaps a handful of institutions that are not respecting that, please work with us. You know, we’re trying to to allow that space to protect that. Don’t don’t undermine that for everyone else.”

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On Wednesday afternoon, Kenney spoke further on the GraceLife church situation and said it is not the job of politicians to enforce.

“I don’t want to live in a society where politicians are pointing fingers at who should get penalized and how. That’s not how our democratic system works.

“Alberta has made it a point to try to bring in public health measures that save lives, protect our health-care system, while minimizing the impairment of constitutionally protected rights and freedoms, including the freedom of religion,” he said.

“I think what [the church] is doing is sending a terrible message and is truly irresponsible.”

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1:13 Edmonton-area church defies AHS closure order by welcoming members for Sunday service

Outside of enforcement, Notley feels there are simply too many cases of COVID-19 variants in the province to think about reopening some businesses.

“What we’re seeing across the country is that every other province is finding ways to become more restrictive because they can read the writing on the wall with respect to the variant,” she said.

“And guess who has the highest number of variant cases per capita in the country? It’s Alberta all over again, and we’re going in the opposite direction. It doesn’t make sense.”

But Kenney said the province has thresholds in place where, if hit, further restrictions won’t be lifted.

“We’ve been very clear if things turn around, if the virus starts to go back in the wrong direction, we may have to tighten things,” Kenney said.

That constant opening and closing for businesses isn’t helpful either, Notley said.

“I’ve heard from a lot of small business owners that the yo-yo effect is actually something that’s harder to manage than just being closed,” she said. “And I’ve heard a lot of other people say that, you know what, open or closed, we’re not going to go back as customers because we don’t think it’s safe.”

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Alberta is adopting a four-step plan to reopening that will see hospitalization numbers as the main metric to watch. If hospitalizations drop enough over a three week period, the next phase of reopening will be discussed. Restrictions will not automatically be lifted if that number is hit, Kenney stressed on Friday.

Alberta’s chief medical officer of health said the province will be monitoring new case numbers, test positivity rates and how many infections result from each positive case as well.

–with files from Allison Bench, Global News