The City of Airdrie declared a State of Local Emergency March 17, supporting the efforts the rest of the province is making to contain the risk of spreading the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Declaring a state of local emergency allows us to take steps to protect our community, especially our vulnerable populations, by reducing all public and private facility capacity to the lesser of 50 people or 50 per cent of their maximum occupancy including but not limited to bars, restaurants, lounges and halls," read a City press release. "Grocery/food stores, shopping centres, retail stores, pharmacies, offices, public transit, Alberta Health Services facilities and care centres are excluded at this time and can remain open while encouraging social distancing measures."
Closures and cancellations across City facilities are also a key part of the municipality’s infectious disease management plan to address the local spread of the virus, approved by council at a meeting March 16 – just ahead of a news conference in which Mayor Peter Brown announced the closures to the community.
“Our municipal Emergency Management Plan was activated last week, and we have our Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) activated at a level two in Airdrie,” said Lorri Laface, deputy director of Emergency Management, during a presentation to council. “Right now, that means that we are augmenting positions and activities as we need to, to manage COVID-19.”
The Emergency Management Agency is meeting daily, she said, reviewing the situation as information is provided from the provincial operations centre – the co-ordination point for Alberta Health Services. From there, she said, the agency determines the best course of action for Airdrie.
“We’re looking at making local decisions with the best interest of our community in mind where it comes to business continuity for the City,” Laface said. “We want to maintain our critical operations, make sure that we have the workforce to do that, and as this evolves – and it will – to manage our resources and manage our people to make sure that we can do that on behalf of the community.”
The March 15 provincial decision to close schools and daycares, with many businesses following suit, had a significant impact on the City’s plan, she added.
“For us, that changed overnight, as it did for many households in Airdrie,” she said. “We’re looking at what that means to us in all of our departments, making sure that, where we have to move people around or reallocate people to do different things within the city, that we’re capable to do that and that we’re looking at this daily as it evolves.”
Council had the opportunity to review the plan at the Emergency Advisory Committee Level, she noted, but the document was not provided in the meeting’s agenda.
According to Laface, the City’s infectious disease management plan pulls from both the provincial plan and the federal plan, setting out the roles and responsibilities on a local level and focusing on decision-making on behalf of the municipality as the novel virus spreads into communities throughout Alberta.
The presentation was broadcast to the community via council’s meeting livestream, and Brown took the opportunity to ask questions to help calm any local panic.
“For someone listening, they heard you say it’s going to get worse,” Brown said. “What do you anticipate, as it relates to some of the proactive stuff that we’re doing that would mitigate the worst for the community?”
While Laface said Alberta Health is taking the lead on mitigation, she said residents should continue to practice frequent hand-washing and avoid touching their faces, but noted social distancing is the most important proactive move residents can make.
“There’s decision-making around the public piece of our facilities and limiting public being together in groups, but there’s also the business continuity side of it, which we don’t know what that looks like for us yet,” she said. “As this event evolves, it might look different tomorrow, or the next day.”
So far, Laface said, staffing hasn’t been a concern at City facilities, but the closures and cancellations of various events are more of a precautious – to ensure the municipality is doing its part to reduce opportunities for the virus to spread.
“We want to make sure we’re limiting those larger groups and those larger congregations in our public facilities where we can,” she said, “but that could change and it could be staffing that drives some decisions down the road, as well.”
Concerned residents should visit the Alberta Health Services website for more information, she added, as well as the COVID-19 page on the City’s website.
Coun. Ron Chapman noted since the city falls within AHS’ Calgary Zone, no separate data is available regarding cases reported in Airdrie, specifically – Airdronians should refer to information directed to residents of the Calgary Zone.
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