Western Canada: An alarming resurgence of COVID-19 infections prompts mask bylaws, warnings of pandemic ‘fatigue’

Good morning. It’s James Keller in Calgary.

There have been COVID-19 success stories across Western Canada.

In B.C., where there was the first COVID-19 death and the first major outbreak at a long-term care home, which killed 20 people, the province contained the spread into those facilities and brought new cases down to just a handful a day.

Alberta was quick to build up the most robust testing system in the country, and the province kept its caseload – and hospitalizations – well below the capacity of the health care system.

Saskatchewan spent months with only a trickle of infections and few deaths.

And in Manitoba, infections appeared to grind to a halt a month ago, with no new cases at all reported for the first half of July.

But all of those provinces, much like other parts of Canada, are now experiencing upswings in new cases, in some cases reversing much of the progress made in recent weeks and months.

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The most alarming jump has been in Alberta, which has added nearly 2,000 new cases since July 1. Active cases have more than tripled and hospitalizations are at a level not seen since May. The province’s Chief Medical Officer says it’s clear people are becoming complacent – she believes that’s because of fatigue – and not following public-health advice.

B.C.‘s Medical Health Officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, says that province is at a “tipping point” as cases there also increase, many linked to parties that happened in Kelowna over the Canada Day long weekend. Nearly 1,000 people, who were potentially exposed in Kelowna, are in self isolation, with 70 confirmed cases.

In Saskatchewan and Manitoba, health officials have linked some of the new cases to Hutterite colonies on the Prairies.

In Saskatchewan, the province had its single-largest number of infections in one day on Wednesday, with 48 new cases confirmed. Of those, 43 were linked to a single Hutterite community and a total of 17 colonies in the province have active cases. Manitoba reported 35 cases linked to Hutterite colonies; out of 120 colonies in the province, only five have active cases.

The media coverage about COVID-19 in Hutterite communities prompted leaders to warn of discrimination and ask provincial health authorities to stop singling them out. The Hutterian Safety Council says it’s working with those communities to curb the spread and ensure people are co-operating with public-health orders and assisting in contact tracing.

The increases are happening as provinces in the West and elsewhere in Canada continue re-opening their economies. Health officials had warned that new cases were inevitable but that the health care system could cope.

Manitoba has delayed a proposal to lift a self-isolation requirement for travellers from Eastern Canada, and while the province will allow casinos, cinemas and theatres to open as planned, beginning today, they will be limited to 30-per-cent capacity instead of 50.

Beyond that, governments are rejecting the notion of new lockdowns or restrictions, and in Alberta, where there are calls for a provincewide mandate for everyone to wear masks, the government has ruled that out.

Cities, however, are acting on their own.

In Calgary, city council voted to make masks mandatory in all public indoor spaces starting next weekend. It will be largely voluntary, although the bylaw does include fines of $100 to $200 for people who refuse to wear masks or businesses that don’t display signage alerting visitors to the rules.

Edmonton did not go quite as far, instead voting to require masks on public-transit and city-owned buildings. Lethbridge is considering its own potential bylaw.

Premier Jason Kenney says he has no problem with bylaws at the local level, where policies can better reflect the reality on the ground.

Gary Mason writes that it’s time for health officials in B.C. and Alberta to get tough: “Over the coming weeks, we are going to see if the edicts issued by places like Calgary, Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa around wearing masks have any material effect on virus numbers. And whether the less doctrinaire, moral-suasion approach favoured by [B.C. Chief Medical Officer Dr. Henry] remains one that is able to keep virus numbers relatively low. If it is not, the renowned public-health officer may have to change course and do something she has so far been reluctant to do – get tough with people.”

This is the weekly Western Canada newsletter written by B.C. Editor Wendy Cox and Alberta Bureau Chief James Keller. If you’re reading this on the web, or it was forwarded to you from someone else, you can sign up for it and all Globe newsletters here. This is a new project and we’ll be experimenting as we go, so let us know what you think.

Around the West:

CALGARY MAN FACING TERRORISM CHARGES: Hussein Sobhe Borhot is facing four terrorism charges over allegations that he travelled to Syria to fight for the Islamic State – one of only a handful of cases in which prosecutors here have arrested and charged a Canadian who is alleged to have joined a violent extremist group overseas. He was arrested in Calgary and charged with three counts of participating in the activity of a terrorist group and one count of committing an offence on behalf of a terrorist group. A bail hearing began Friday afternoon and is to continue next Thursday.

VANCOUVER COUNCIL VOTES ON STREET CHECKS: Vancouver’s city council has voted unanimously to ask the local police board to ban the practice of street checks, two years after an internal report showed Indigenous and Black citizens were disproportionately stopped in public to be “carded” and have their various personal details recorded.

CHARGES LAID IN ALLEGED HATE CRIME: Jamie Allen Bezanson of Vancouver has been charged with assault in an attack on a 92-year-old man with dementia that Vancouver police have described as part of a wave of hate-motivated incidents targeting members of the East Asian community during the pandemic.

PROBE INTO FOREIGN WORKERS IN B.C. BEING DETAINED: An investigation is under way after two Mexican nationals – in British Columbia to work on a berry farm – were mistakenly caught up in a search for drug smugglers along the Canada-United States border. In a letter to Canadian officials, Mexico’s consul general in Vancouver said the two workers called the consulate’s emergency line after allegedly being assaulted by police officers near a farm in Abbotsford.

ALMOST 1,000 SELF-ISOLATING AFTER COVID-19 EXPOSURE IN KELOWNA: More than 70 people have contracted COVID-19 and close to 1,000 others across British Columbia are in self-isolation after packed events and parties recently in Kelowna, B.C. Provincial Health Officer Bonnie Henry said Wednesday she would be amending a provincial health order to impose stricter rules on bars and nightclubs, requiring all patrons be seated at designated spots and prohibit dance floors and self-serve liquor service.

VANCOUVER CITY COUNCIL APPROVES 28-STOREY TOWER: Mayor Kennedy Stewart says an experimental rental-incentive program that led this week to one of the city’s most controversial public hearings – and a razor-thin approval for a 28-storey rental tower – should be made permanent because council and the public have demonstrated steady support for the idea. The project, on Broadway near Granville, is the ninth approved under the pilot program.

B.C. MAYOR WON’T APOLOGIZE FOR CONFEDERATE FLAG ACTION: Toni Boot, the mayor of Summerland, B.C., is declining to apologize for going into a local dollar store and cutting up bandanas featuring the image of the Confederate flag. She said that as a person of colour, the symbol of the Confederate states of the U.S. Civil War era represents white supremacy and that it was incumbent on her as a civic leader to take action.

ABBOTSFORD POLICE OFFICER DIES: Constable Allan Young, a 16-year member of the Abbotsford Police Department who suffered life-threatening injuries after intervening in a dispute while off-duty in Nelson, B.C., has died.

Opinion:

Kelly Cryderman on school reopening: “While the Kenney government says it’s purposely not being prescriptive – saying it wants to give schools and boards autonomy – I worry that provincial responsibility is being downloaded to educators, and outbreaks (or concern about outbreaks) could have us back to some version of remote learning before Thanksgiving.”

Adrienne Tanner on racist covenants: “Offensive symbols can be altered or moved without destroying history. A statue of someone whose views or actions are repugnant need not stand in a marquee location. It can be moved to a museum along with an explanation.”

Tim Querengesser on provinces vs. cities: “Alberta’s cities could yet persevere. But the darkest outcome surely now sits on the table: that Edmonton and Calgary, home to more than half of Alberta’s population – along with mid-size cities such as Medicine Hat or Lethbridge – see their councils diluted into glorified school boards that do the partisan bidding of their provincial governments.”