Thread by @meksmith

So the provincial COVID update is done, just a few minutes before #yyccc's discussion on the pandemic is set to start. We now know a provincial mask mandate is returning, so talking about a local mask bylaw might be moot. calgaryherald.com/news/local-new…

Things are kicking off. Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra is charing from home, but Coun. Diane Colley-Urquhart, Coun. Shane Keating and Coun. Jyoti Gondek are in chambers. #yyccc

Based on roll call, sounds like all members of #yyccc are participating in this committee meeting. Mayor Naheed Nenshi also among those participating remotely.

Carra says he isn't in person because he's currently a bit sick, and while it isn't COVID, he still didn't want to come to work under the weather. #yyccc

Off the top, Nenshi says he will be calling a special meeting of #yyccc right at the end of this committee to pass a bylaw that the city believes is necessary to implement the new provincial mask mandate.

I think Nenshi may be using a filter... to make himself entirely purple? #yyccc

City manager David Duckworth is kicking off the COVID update. Local medical officers of health are also on hand — Dr. Nick Etches and Dr. Karla Gustafson. #yyccc

CEMA Chief Sue Henry is also on the line but assistant chief Coby Duerr is giving today's COVID update. He says active COVID in cases hit a low of 283 in mid-July. Now there are nearly 4,000. The Calgary zone has the lowest per-capita rate of COVID cases. #yyccc

Duerr says the R0 in the Calgary zone is about 1.05 while it's 1.19 in the rest of the province. But regardless, a number above one means a continuing increase in cases. #yyccc

Hospitalizations due to COVID in the Calgary zone dropped to a low of 42 in early August before sharply surging up over the past month.

Duerr says the test positivity rate in Calgary is moving toward the highest levels seen over the entire pandemic. #yyccc

Calgary is doing very well in terms of vaccine uptake as a whole, but you can see from the graphic here that east Calgary (no longer northeast) has some lower immunization rates, comparatively. #yyccc

NEW: The City of Calgary has decided to implement a policy requiring all city employees to be fully vaccinated by Nov. 1, 2021. This is a bit of a step forward that allowed for unvaccinated workers to undergo regular rapid testing. #yyccc

This means city employees must get their second COVID shot by Oct. 18. People exempt due to health reasons or other protected grounds will be accommodated, and they'll be able to get rapid tests. #yyccc

MORE NEW: City officials are recommending #yyccc restore a state of local emergency in Calgary.

City admin says restoring a municipal face-covering bylaw ensures municipal peace officers can enforce the mask mandate. They're recommending a defined end-date of the end of 2021 for any new mask bylaw. #yyccc

On the topic of making vaccines mandatory more broadly — a "vaccine passport" — city admin says there's a risk because there's a lack of clear, universal proof of vaccination in Alberta. #yyccc

Council members asking questions to public health doctors. Nenshi asks to what extent vaccine outreach efforts will be available to the city, as he'd like to target areas where younger people hang out as well as parts of the city with lower vaccination rates. #yyccc

Dr. Gustafson says COVID vaccine is widely and broadly available in urban areas, so she's not sure if there's much of a gap there. #yyccc

Onto questions for city administration. Woolley asks what happens if a city worker refuses to get vaccinated and they don't have acceptable grounds for an exemption. Answer: that's still being worked on. "Our preference would be to educate ... and not have to go down that path."

Farkas asks what the impact of the new $100 vaccine incentive will be on Calgary/city workforce. CEMA's Duerr says it's new, so they basically have to wait and see. #yyccc

On the topic of possibly mandating COVID vaccination to access city facilities/services, Farkas says he's double vaccinated and encourages everyone to get the shots, but he thinks it's "overstepping" for the city government to mandate it. #yyccc

Farkas asks whether it's legal to mandate vaccination for city workforce. City manager Duckworth says the City of Calgary is far from the first to do this. City solicitor says this is a live question right now but "there's a legally sound basis for advancing this." #yyccc

Farkas asks whether city unions are on board with mandatory vaccination policy. Duckworth says he knows several union leaders are not in support. Some background on that discussion here: calgaryherald.com/news/local-new… #yyccc

Duckworth says his inbox is "flooded" with thanks for implementing mandatory vaccination policy for employees. "I'm getting overwhelming support right now from our staff." But he says some people will also be unhappy, consequences for not getting the shot still being worked on.

City administration can't create policy that's enforceable on council members and their ward staff, so if there's going to be a vaccine mandate for #yyccc members, council would have to create it on their own.

Farkas is pressing city officials on the legality of the vaccine mandate. City solicitor says she can assure him that the law dept has been very involved in this, including senior labour and employment lawyers. #yyccc

Farkas asks whether Calgarians could be cut off from essential city services if there's a vaccine mandate to access them. City manager says he personally doesn't think #yyccc should go down this road, but perhaps it's appropriate for city recreation centres.

Farkas asks why there's a need for a municipal mask bylaw when there's now a provincial mandate. City admin says it allows for certainty of enforcement. Municipal peace officers have been unable to enforce the provincial requirement for masks on public transit. #yyccc

Gondek says she finds Farkas's earlier comments about human rights and civil liberties "a bit odd." She says ICU capacity could exceed its maximum over the long weekend, asks what happens to people who have now had their surgeries cancelled. #yyccc

Coun. Shane Keating says it's true that the government can't impose a vaccine on you, "but we can hold you accountable for your actions." He says it's reasonable that there would be consequences to choosing not to get the COVID shot if you simply refuse. #yyccc

Coun. Druh Farrell is going to make an amendment that councillors and their staff also have to comply by the city's mandatory vaccination policy. City administration can't bind #yyccc by their same rules so council has to do it themselves.

Here's a motion Nenshi is putting on the floor. Note that whatever the recommendation here has to be ultimately passed at the special meeting called right after this committee. #yyccc

Nenshi says he's thinking about last fall when the premier announced "the minimum little thing" and then had to come back later and bring in further restrictions since the previous actions weren't bending the curve. #yyccc

Nenshi: "I am severely disappointed in that lack of protection, and we have too many hospitalizations and too many deaths as a result." #yyccc

Nenshi says he'd like to ask for the mask bylaw to have a metric, similar to Edmonton's bylaw, that if COVID cases fall below a certain threshold the rules are rescinded. #yyccc

Nenshi says he believes a "vaccine passport" system is truly the way to increase vaccination rates and it's unfair to businesses to keep them at risk of closing if COVID rates don't go down. #yyccc

Nenshi says after some thought, he is not in favour of a vaccine mandate for city facilities. He says people who need city services, especially things like coming in person to pick up the low-income transit pass, are already marginalized. Plus, masks are already required. #yyccc

Nenshi adds that it's the city manager's job to mandate vaccination for city employees and he believes it's the right thing to do, isn't interested in #yyccc pushing back on that as Farkas suggested earlier.

Farrell now adding the amendment for councillors and their staff to also comply with the mandatory vaccination policy at the city, but after some technical discussion, sounds like it's gotta be referred for further debate on Sept. 13 #yyccc

Aaaaand meeting temporarily in recess because we appear to have lost connection with the chair/everyone participating remotely. #yyccc

Meeting is back. Farrell is now reading a letter she received that she says is from a pediatrician who lives in her ward. #yyccc

Coun. Sean Chu asking for city officials to explain, again, why Calgary needs its own municipal mask bylaw when the province just announced a mask mandate. #yyccc

Basic rundown on that:
Municipal peace officers don't currently have authority to enforce mask rules. Municipal bylaw would allow that.
It also gives the city flexibility to add or change mask rules if the provincial mandate is lifted. #yyccc

Chu says he doesn't agree with advocating for a vaccine passport system and also thinks the city should "stay in its lane" and shouldn't be looking at potentially creating a municipal medical officer of health. #yyccc

Coun. Jeff Davison says the 10 p.m. liquor service restriction is "silly" and it just hurts businesses. He wants #yyccc to ask the province to reconsider doing it in the absence of any financial assistance programs.

Keating says he's "at a loss" trying to understand why the city wouldn't "show leadership" and require vaccination to get certain city services. He's adding an amendment to "investigate methods" of doing so. #yyccc

Farkas, in response, says the idea of requiring vaccination in city facilities is "wrong." Urges #yyccc to vote against it.

VOTE on Keating's amendment to look into a mandatory vaccine policy for city services: CARRIED 10-4 #yyccc
Chahal Y
Chu N
Davison Y
Demong N
Farkas N
Farrell Y
Gondek Y
Keating Y
Magliocca N
Sutherland Y
Woolley Y
Nenshi Y
Colley-Urquhart Y
Carra Y

An annoying procedural reminder that we're still in a committee right now, and there will be a final vote at a special meeting shortly-ish. #yyccc

Back to talking about the main motion. Coun. Colley-Urquhart says there's been a "void" of leadership from the province and she wants to see a state of local emergency called in Calgary. #yyccc

Gondek says the provincial government "clearly has no idea what public health means" and for people who say #yyccc needs to "stay in its lane," she thinks there are no lanes any longer.

Farkas is putting forward an amendment to direct city administration rescind the vaccination policy for city employees and consult with unions.

City solicitor says her opinion is that #yyccc doesn't have the authority to make this direction.

Basically the Municipal Government Act states that #yyccc cannot take over the duties of the city manager, and this would be wading into that territory.

Coun. Carra, chairing this meeting, is ruling this amendment out of order. Challenge to the chair process may be coming. #yyccc

Alright no, now the amendment is for #yyccc to "request the city manager to consider" rescinding the vaccine mandate for civic employees and that's being allowed to a vote.

Nenshi: "This is an unbelievably bad idea and if I were the city manager I would quit" if #yyccc directed him to do this.

VOTE on Farkas amendment to ask city manager to "consider" walking back employee vaccine mandate: LOST 11-3
Only Farkas, Chu, Magliocca in favour. #yyccc

Farkas says it's "borderline criminal" to pursue a vaccine mandate for city facilities.

Numerous objections, Nenshi says #yyccc members can say they disagree with something but cannot say it's immoral and unlawful and that comment must be withdrawn.

Farkas is being asked to withdraw comments suggesting criminality and that #yyccc is "pretending to be doctors."

He agrees to withdraw the "unlawful" comments.

It's past 5 p.m. on Friday and I'm ready to lie on the floor.

After a bunch of arguing, Farkas says he doesn't want his words to continue to be misrepresented, so he agrees to withdraw them. #yyccc

Carra asks what city services you might have to prove vaccination to receive. City admin says they'll look into that before they come back on Sept. 13 but it would be "nothing essential." Carra says it's not like you're going to have to prove vaccination if you call 911. #yyccc

Nenshi says there may be good reasons to oppose some of what's in today's motion, but today all #yyccc heard was "grasping at straws, throwing spaghetti at the wall and weak desperation."

The vote on the main motion (at committee) is up now. A whole bunch of the items are being broken up to be called separately so I'm not even going to try to break down the vote splits on this mess. #yyccc

We just had nine separate votes to cover every aspect of this motion, including section 2, which is broken into three parts.
All parts of the motion pass, so the whole thing is carried at the committee level. #yyccc

The emergency management committee is concluding. A five-minute break is next, and then the special meeting to officially pass all this stuff. Sounds like the desire is just head straight into the vote and not do the whole debate over again. #yyccc

Alrighty special meeting of #yyccc is on.

The vote here is to give three readings to the bylaw to bring back Calgary's local mask mandate. It's the same bylaw that was in place until July, but has these conditions of repeal, which are new. #yyccc

Farkas asks whether the bylaw would come in and out of effect if the case counts drop enough that they're repealed but then go back up.
Answer is no, once the bylaw is repealed it can't be revived except through three readings of a new bylaw. #yyccc

Three readings of the new municipal face covering bylaw: carried 12-2. Only Coun. Farkas and Magliocca opposed.
And we're adjourned. That's it for today. #yyccc

Here's the wrap-up of today's meeting and what came of all the COVID talks at #yyccc: calgaryherald.com/news/local-new…