Grey County is in the process of drafting a county-wide mandatory masking bylaw.
The proposed bylaw will mirror the recent order from the Grey Bruce Health Unit’s medical officer of health (MOH), Dr. Ian Arra, which was issued on July 14, and requires residents to wear a non-medical mask in all indoor, public spaces.
County staff have begun drafting the bylaw, which will only be put in place if necessary and with direction from Dr. Arra.
“Right now, what we have is a Section 22 order from the MOH, where he has asked that everyone wear a mask in an enclosed public space,” said Kim Wingrove, Grey County CAO at a recently held committee of the whole meeting.
“I think what we are seeing in the community since that order was issued is good compliance. People are trying to do the right thing,” she added.
The county is opting to develop a bylaw, as opposed to the lower-tier municipalities creating their own bylaw, to ensure consistency throughout the region.
“The bylaw coming from municipalities will be a tool offered for employers or workplaces to use it to mandate the use of masks, if need be,” said Arra.
The current order from the MOH is set to remain in place for four weeks, at which point Arra will re-evaluate the situation and decide to rescind, amend or extend the order.
If the MOH order is rescinded, the county may be called upon to enact the bylaw if the health unit deems it necessary.
“We may never need this as Dr. Arra may decide to take another path in the future, or we may be so fortunate that the conditions don’t ever warrant having to move to a more fulsome situation where local bylaw enforcement and police are needing to step in to enforce the need to wear masks in an enclosed space,” Wingrove said.
The bylaw will be drafted in consultation with the Grey Bruce Health Unit, as well as Bruce County.
The proposed bylaw will include details on how it would be applied, what it requires of individuals or businesses, exemptions, how it would be administered and enforced, penalties for non-compliance and effective and repeal dates.
According to Wingrove, the bylaw exemptions would be similar to what is outlined in the current MOH order, which allows individuals to opt-out of wearing a mask because of age or medical condition.
“Right now, we don’t have a problem, but we could have a problem. We have a lot of visitors here and mask compliance is variable,” said the Town of the Blue Mountains (TBM) mayor, Alar Soever.
“It would be good to have a bylaw for the very rare instance where compliance becomes an issue,” he said.
Soever adds that he would like to see the bylaw outline clear details of business owners, with tips on how to handle customers who are not being compliant.
Deputy mayor of the municipality of Grey Highlands, Aakash Desai says he is also in favour of seeing this bylaw enacted in order to give local business owners some protection.
“I would support a bylaw because it puts all businesses on a level playing field,” Desai said. “There is a certain process that needs to be followed and if someone is not wearing a mask, you are allowed to tell them that they are not allowed to come in without a mask. As of right now, businesses are not required to tell someone not wearing a mask not to come in.”
TBM Deputy Mayor Rob Potter agrees, saying that the current MOH order has far too much leeway for individuals not to wear a mask.
“I think we have to be as stringent as possible with our wording so people understand they must wear masks. I know a lot of business people are looking for that and they don’t want to be left in the middle,” Potter said. “The less wiggle room we have for people to say they have an exemption, the better.”
However, Brain Milne, the deputy mayor of the Township of Southgate, says he is concerned about the lack of resources within the bylaw department and feels deferring these issues to the Ontario Provincial Police is too much.
“I certainly don’t think we need a fully-trained, armed police officer running after someone on the main street of Dundalk because they are not wearing a freaking mask,” he said.
“I think we need to just accept the fact that there will be some in our communities that just will not wear a mask or comply with anything,” he added
Grey county staff will be presenting the draft bylaw for council’s consideration at the upcoming Aug. 13 council meeting.
