Skip to content

Banff council turns down rapid test pilot program

Rapid Test & Trace Canada co-founder Sandy White said he was "shocked and disappointed" that council turned down the proposal, which had been developed with health experts.
20210402 Banff Avenue 0016
Hundreds of pedestrians walk shoulder to shoulder along a busy Banff Avenue during the Easter long weekend on Friday (April 2). EVAN BUHLER RMO PHOTO

BANFF – A proposal for a community-wide asymptomatic COVID-19 rapid testing pilot has been turned down by Banff’s elected officials.

On Monday (April 12), council voted 4-3 against getting more information on Rapid Test & Trace Canada’s (RTTC) proposal, which would cost the municipality $363,000 and require staff time, and perhaps space, to help administer the program.

Mayor Karen Sorensen said she may have been more supportive had the proposal come before council several months ago, noting vaccinations are underway and many businesses are using rapid tests supplied by the province to test staff.

“The big stumbling blocks with this is we can’t mandate people to go and get tested,” she said.

“There’s no guarantee after we settle this up and spend the money, respectfully, that it’s going to be used.”

RTTC’s goal was to use rapid antigen tests to screen residents twice a week for 90 days, with results available in 15 minutes, to help stop the spread of COVID-19 in the community.

A proposal for centralized screening centres throughout Banff aimed to test about 10 per cent of the population daily. Participation would be limited to asymptomatic people.

RTTC co-founder Sandy White said he was "shocked and disappointed" that council turned down the proposal, which had been developed with health experts, especially considering Banff’s rising case count.

“The Town of Banff had an unprecedented and enviable opportunity to take a leadership position in Canada’s struggle to stop COVID,” he said.

“Unfortunately, the Town has to balance other priorities and apparently didn’t see the value of how our proposal would help protect residents.”

Councillor Peter Poole said public health is a joint responsibility of the federal and provincial governments, and yet many burdens have been downloaded to the Town of Banff and local businesses.

He said the municipality has spent money on protecting the community during the pandemic, on visitor communication and coordinating testing, while businesses did their own contact tracing when the province was overwhelmed.

“Fundamentally, I don’t understand why a municipality should have to pay a penny for this. I think for us to be the test case, the federal-provincial governments should be paying us to do it,” he said.

“Could somebody please give me a convincing argument why we should use taxpayers dollars?”

Dr. Richard Lester, CSO with WelTel Health, a project sponsor and RTTC partner, said Banff residents will be the ones to benefit from the rapid testing pilot project.

“No 1, public health, they’re going to see a safer community, and No. 2, they’re going to see their economy benefit following,” he said.

“What we’re talking about here is Banff being considered a responsible resort in the pandemic, and I think everyone’s going to benefit.”

In the end, Coun. Poole was interested in getting more information on RTTC’s proposal, as were Councillors Brian Standish and Ted Christensen.

“The risk going forward of a pandemic that unfolds in the current COVID and its variants manner, as a multi-year problem for our community, is one for which the idea of widespread routine testing is very appealing to me,” Poole said.

“The cost, even if it were a million over a year for a town group of businesses through a town council to have to pay for a billion dollar industry, is still only a 10th of a percent, but it’s still a very large amount for our council.”

While governments squabble over jurisdiction, White said Canada’s private sector is stepping up to keep people safe.

“I think this experience epitomizes the ineptitude at all levels of government in effectively managing the pandemic and keeping Canadians safe,” said White.

As of April 13, the Banff and Lake Louise area had 95 active cases compared to five exactly two weeks earlier. Banff now has the third highest per capita rate in Alberta.

Alberta Health has reported the majority of cases in this region are variants of concern, including the B117 variant originally identified in the United Kingdom and the P1 strain that has been traced to Brazil.

push icon
Be the first to read breaking stories. Enable push notifications on your device. Disable anytime.
No thanks