By Liam Verster

AHS shuts down GraceLife Church

Apr 7, 2021 | 9:09 AM

Alberta Health Services has physically closed GraceLife Church (GLC) in Spruce Grove and is preventing access to the building after the church repeatedly refused to comply with public health orders.

AHS says in a statement that the church was closed on Wednesday, April 7, and will remain shut until the church can demonstrate that it will comply with the restrictions set out by Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer of Health.

AHS says that for several months they tried to work in collaboration with the church to have them follow the regulations and address the ongoing public health concerns at the church, but GLC has refused to comply.

In advance of physically closing the building, AHS issued the church an order on December 17, 2020, asking GLC to comply with the restrictions.

On January 12, a Court of Queen’s Bench Order was obtained that required the church to comply with the regulations.

A closure order was then issued on January 29th, which required the building to close until compliance with the health orders was met.

On March 27, AHS sent a letter to Pastor James Coates, providing him with information on the continued spread of COVID-19. AHS then reached out to Coates and invited him to a virtual discussion on the risks presented by COVID-19, to which the church did not respond.

AHS says since GLC refuses to follow the mandatory restrictions, and have made no effort to work with the public health agency to reduce the risk of transmission in the community, it has shut down the building.

The statement also says because of the increased rate of more easily transmitted COVID-19 variants in the province, there is an urgent need to enforce restrictions and attempt to limit transmission.

AHS also says 105 complaints have been made by the public about GLC between July 10, 2020 and April 6, 2021 regarding the risk of COVID-19 transmission at the church. AHS has also conducted 18 inspections of the site since last July, and during each one of those visits, violations of public health orders were observed at the site.