Mayor Bill Given (photo courtesy of the City of Grande Prairie)

By Shane Clausing

COVID-19 Restrictions

Given calling on residents to virtually reach out, support local as province lays out restrictions

Dec 9, 2020 | 12:38 PM

Grande Prairie Mayor Bill Given says he’s not surprised by the new COVID-19 measures introduced by the province of Tuesday.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney announced new restrictions to combat the rapid spread of COVID-19 in Alberta. The new measures, which take effect at 12:01 a.m. Sunday, December 13 include:

• All casinos and gyms must close.
• Restaurants and bars will be allowed to remain open for takeout service only, dine-in service is banned.
• Businesses that offer personal and wellness services such as hair salons, nail salons, tattoo parlours and massages will be forced to close.
• Entertainment and indoor recreation facilities must close.
• Retail capacity will be allowed to remain open at 15% capacity.
• Places of worship will be capped at 15% capacity. The province is recommending that places of worship move their services to either virtual or operate as a drive-in to reduce any close contact.
• Facilities such as outdoor rinks and indoor ski-hills can remain open if public health measures are followed.
• All workplaces must have their staff work from home, unless the employer requires an employee to be in the workplace for operational effectiveness. This was previously a recommendation and is now a legal requirement.

The new province-wide measures will be in place for a minimum of four weeks.

“I think that these measures are very tough and very stringent and will be a big imposition on peoples lives, but I don’t believe it’s at all surprising,” said Given.

“Anyone who thought that Alberta was immune to what we’ve seen from COVID across the globe was fooling themselves. I think that it is not surprising that we’ve ended up here. I’m thankful that the government is moving in this direction to protect lives.”

As of the end of day December 7 there were 654 people in hospital with COVID-19 across the province, 112 of those patients are in the ICU.

With the new rules, small and medium sized businesses will get some help thanks to the Small and Medium Enterprise Relaunch Grant, which Given is happy to see.

“I’m thankful that the government has recognized the significant impact that this is going to have on businesses.

“I appreciate that they’ve increased the amount of the restart grant. It appears that they were intentional about structuring their restrictions in such a way that most impacted businesses would have an ability to apply for federal programs as well. This is going to be a significant impact on all of us.”

Given also wanted to encourage residents to re-introduce some of those habits used back in March when the first wave of the pandemic hit.

“That means reaching out to family and friends electronically. Continue to reach out and connect with people, particularly the strong ones. Sometimes the people you might least expect would have a challenge with this, could be facing real emotional struggles. Reach out to one and other and support one and other.”

Like many others, Given is also encouraging residents to shop local and support area small businesses who may be struggling during this time.

“I would encourage people where they can to support local businesses and restaurants that are remaining open by calling a business, ordering online, arriving to pick up, doing anything that we can to support businesses through this difficult time.”

As the holiday season also approaches, Given also reiterated that the Premier stated quite clearly, that we should not be gathering in large groups this year.

“This is going to have a huge impact on a lot of holiday traditions. We need to recognize that we want Christmas to be a time of joy, and it shouldn’t turn into a time of remorse because we didn’t closely follow the requirements that COVID has brought upon us.”

“I hope that residents will strictly adhere to the guidance and requirements that are being imposed, because we want to be able to ensure that we can celebrate 2021 with all of our loved ones.”