Rocky View County and Airdrie area MLAs are applauding the removal of the Alberta government's Restrictions Exemptions Program (REP).
The program – Alberta's version of a COVID-19 vaccination passport to access public facilities and certain businesses – was abolished at midnight on Feb. 9, following a press conference from Premier Jason Kenney the day before.
During the press conference, Kenney said the REP had outlived its usefulness, as it was no longer incentivizing people to get vaccinated against COVID-19, as Alberta's vaccination rate had been virtually stagnant for weeks.
“Our approach to COVID must change as the disease changes,” he said.
Airdrie-East MLA Angela Pitt – who has opposed public health restrictions throughout much of the COVID-19 pandemic – said she is happy to see the back of the REP.
“I’m very pleased to see we’re at least on the right track this time, and working toward living in a more normal way of life,” she said.
“I think the REP was a very wrong thing for society and our culture. It was very divisive, and particularly with the Omicron variant, it didn’t prove to be very successful in any way, shape, or form.
“I do know there’s a large sentiment, certainly here in Airdrie among my constituents, that we need to learn how to live with COVID and move forward,” she added.
In a statement to Great West Media, Airdrie-Cochrane MLA Peter Guthrie echoed his Airdrie colleague's opinion, adding that he had been against a vaccine passport from the beginning.
Guthrie blamed the program for increasing social division among Albertans, arguing that continuing the REP would only make the province more divided and hurt the economy.
“Prolonging [the REP’s] use would only further exacerbate social division and negative economic impacts for businesses,” he said.
Alberta’s decision to lift restrictions aligns with several other jurisdictions, including Saskatchewan, Quebec and Prince Edward Island.
While many celebrated what Guthrie and the governing United Conservative Party hope will be a “return to normalcy” in the coming months, some Albertans were less enthusiastic about the rapid end to the REP, including among them the immunocompromised.
Guthrie addressed their concerns by saying there would never be a time with “zero risk” when it comes to COVID.
“I appreciate that some may be feeling apprehensive about the plan to remove restrictions,” Guthrie said. “There is never going to be a scenario where there is zero risk; however, we have two additional years of data and information to draw from, additional treatment options are available, and a population with significant protection [thanks to vaccines].”
In the northernmost section of Rocky View County, Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills MLA Nathan Cooper said his constituents have spoken out repeatedly about the REP, and while he was in favour of public health restrictions at the beginning, he agrees now is the time to lift them.
“These mandates may have served a purpose earlier in the pandemic,” he said on his Facebook page on Feb. 8, prior to Kenney's announcement about the lifting of the REP. “They were brought in on the advice of medical professionals in an effort to limit spread of the virus and prevent stress on the healthcare system.
“However, two years on, we can now see that the Restriction Exemption Program is having limited continued effect, and I stand with my constituents in calling on the premier, the health minister, and the government caucus to lift the public health restrictions that are causing undue intrusion into our lives and unacceptable obstruction of our freedoms.”
Cooper also brought up in his statement an incident at Bowden School last week, when students who refused to wear masks protested outside of the school, before being supervised by a teacher in a school entrance way known as the 'boot room.'
“To be clear I know that staff and teachers have been put in a difficult spot when it comes to the enforcement of mandates and I value the work they do,” Cooper wrote. “The best path forward for kids is to have the mandate lifted by the minister.”
On the western edge of Rocky View County's border, Banff-Kananaskis MLA Miranda Rosin said like Guthrie and Pitt that she had never supported the implementation of a vaccine passport program.
“I have a deeply held belief that no individual should be segregated from society, no child denied the ability to play with friends, and no adult forced out of work due to a personal medical decision they have made for themselves,” she wrote in a Feb. 8 Facebook post. “Every human being deserves to live free from discrimination, and to be treated with respect.”
Rosin said Alberta's vaccinated population has not been immune from contracting COVID-19, adding that justifies the argument the REP failed to limit transmission of the virus.
“My moral values aside, there remains no data-driven reason to continue denying good people the ability to participate in society to the fullest, and be treated with dignity by everyone,” she wrote.
“COVID-19 policies have divided us – physically, and metaphorically – for two years. We cannot continue to live with heightened fear and reliance on government for safety and morality forever.”
Rocky View County's fifth area MLA – Leela Aheer, who represents Chestermere-Strathmore – did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
—With files from Jesse Cole/Cochrane Eagle
