Special meeting of Calgary city council called to discuss COVID-19

Special meeting of Calgary council called Calgary city councillors will meet Wednesday to discuss the COVID-19 situation. Stephanie Thomas reports.

A special meeting of Calgary's city council has been called for Wednesday afternoon to discuss the response to the pandemic, along with a confidential personnel matter.

The meeting is scheduled for 1 p.m.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi said the province's Restrictions Exception Program has been confusing and unclear, and forces municipalities and individual businesses to make up their own mind.

"I'm recalling city council tomorrow to consider a city bylaw to bring clarity to the issue, to get rid of all these loopholes, so every single person knows exactly what they are doing," Nenshi said.

"To say that someone between 12 and 18 can go to hockey practice but can't go out for dinner after hockey practice with the team… that's crazy. So lets just do this correctly and do it right and stop trying to tie ourselves in knots here."

Nenshi said the provincial government "botched" it's rollout of the program.

"So we're hoping to fix the implementation using the city's own abilities to do that."

"We also are announcing tomorrow a city-run vaccination outreach program to really get to people in geographic areas where vaccination is low."

The city returned to a state of local emergency (SOLE) earlier this month in response to rising COVID-19 case numbers and a mask bylaw was put back into effect.

That means masks are required in indoor public spaces and on city transit.

The SOLE will allow city workers to access resources more efficiently and effectively, as well as paving the way to put local health orders in place.

A SOLE was originally declared in November 2020 and lifted in June. Prior to that, a SOLE was in effect from March 2020 to June 2020.

Calgary Recreation has also decided to implement the provincial Restriction Exemption Program, meaning proof of vaccination will have to be shown to access indoor facilities by everyone age 12 and over.