BANFF – The Town of Banff is coming up with a plan for enforcement of COVID-19 restrictions and public health measures over the upcoming Christmas holiday season.
Alison Gerrits, the acting director of emergency management for the Town of Banff, said the enforcement branch is currently putting together a holiday enforcement plan for Dec. 19 though the first week of January, 2021.
“We will be – as the emergency coordination centre (ECC) – reviewing that and then putting in place a schedule to ensure that we have enforcement through the RCMP, municipal enforcement as well as deployment of our safety ambassadors,” she told council during the Dec. 14 meeting.
“We will have an overarching plan, and then we will be looking at that based on what we’re seeing on a day-to-day basis in terms of where we may need to tweak here or there.”
Gerrits said the Town of Banff is unsure what to expect in terms of visitor numbers over the holiday season.
“As far as advanced planning, we are working on potential contingencies should the ECC need to make any decisions that would allow for greater social distancing to occur within the downtown area should it be necessary,” she said.
“However, based on the experiences from this last weekend, things are currently very quiet in town.”
Under new provincial government regulations, ski hills and hotels are still open in Banff and Lake Louise and retail stores are limited to 15 per cent of their typical customer capacity.
Restaurant and bars are closed to in-person dining, but are allowed to continue offering takeout, curb-side pickup or delivery services.
All indoor and outdoor social gatherings are banned for at least the next four weeks.
Not following mandatory restrictions can result in fines of $1,000 per ticketed offence and up to $100,000 through the courts.
Banff RCMP and bylaw officers have been doing random patrols to ensure residents and businesses are complying with COVID-19 restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of the virus.
As of last Friday (Dec. 4), most of Banff’s community peace officers in the bylaw enforcement department are authorized to enforce the provincial health orders – existing and new.
When it comes to business compliance, however, officials say that Alberta Health Services requires the municipality to ask the health authority to investigate and enforce.
“We help monitor and report,” said Jason Darrah, the Town of Banff’s director of communications.
Gerrits said both the Town of Banff’s municipal enforcement department and RCMP reported it was very quiet in town this past weekend, particularly after midnight.
She said compliance of the mandatory mask bylaw was high and that there was a smooth transition to the new provincial regulations governing restaurants and bars that came into effect Dec. 13.
Gerrits said municipal enforcement reported no issues during their neighbourhood patrols to monitor for backyard gatherings.
“More focused patrols were done mainly in the downtown core, but also in outlying areas where we might typically see gathering issues such as at the rec grounds, Central Park and within various neighbourhoods,” she said.
The RCMP are also providing enforcement updates to the Town of Banff.
“One observation to note was that RCMP continue to see some incidents of violence happening in local hotel rooms, where alcohol appears to be a factor,” Gerrits said.
“Although outside of our municipal jurisdiction, RCMP also report they continue to have a presence at the ski hills on the weekends to mitigate any issues and to ensure public health orders are being adhered to.”
Gerrits said ski hill shuttle bus lineups don’t appear to be posing a problem for the RCMP at this time either.
“The Norquay shuttle has halted its shuttle service entirely, so the only hills using shuttle services from the townsite are Sunshine and Lake Louise,” she said.
Councillor Corrie DiManno pleaded with the community to follow all of the restrictions and public measures to help slow down the spread of the virus in Banff.
“This next period of time is going to be a real test to see how our community followed the rules during the holidays,” she said.
“I am really hoping and begging Banffites to please, please follow the guidelines as set out by public health authorities. We saw how quickly it can spread throughout our community.”
As of Dec. 15, there were 67 active cases in Banff and Lake Louise, down from a high of 192 on Nov. 30.
