Vegreville Mayor Addresses COVID-19

Vegreville Mayor Addresses COVID-19

Michelle Pinon News Advertiser

Q: What measures is the Town of Vegreville taking with regards to municipal staff, physical distancing, and safety? What percentage of staff are working from home?

A: The senior management group has split up. So our CAO and the next line are never in the building at the same time. It’s sort of like the princes that are never on the same plane. Because if somebody in our building was to test positive, everybody else would have to go home and self isolate.

Over at public works the coffee breaks have been changed so they’re not all together in the same building at one time. They try their best not to put two people in the same vehicle when they’re heading to do some work.

Q: Italian health professionals who have learned from their situation are recommending separate hospitals for people diagnosed with COVID-19 needing hospitalization to prevent contamination. Does Vegreville’s St. Joseph hospital have a plan in place to prevent this issue and related challenges.

A: The hospital falls under the jurisdiction of Alberta Health Services and Covenant Health. I know there is a plan. Our municipality was asked if we had to start isolating people with Covid-19 other than a hospital, if it got out of hand, would there be a facility? We’ve given them the best facility that we feel would suit the needs, and so that’s all built into their plan, and the worse case scenario. We already have an emergency plan for evacuating other communities into our community and where the beds would come from if needed.

Q: Provincial and federal sources are looking at a timeline up to and past June for COVID-19 public health orders (isolation, business closures, restriction on gatherings). What timeline is the Town of Vegreville working on?

A: We have not declared a local state of emergency. So we’re working off the province, and I can tell you that everybody on council is a lot happier with some of the new things they’ve brought forward when it comes to how many people are allowed to be in a gathering. When the province increased their policing and the efforts under the emergency medical act we were satisfied with that. Now our bylaw officers are now licensed to charge people.

I have to say within the last week I am more than happy with the change in attitude and actions within the community. Everybody is really starting to take this a lot more seriously. What we do today won’t see results until two to three weeks down the road, but I think we’re on the right path now.

Q: This week the City of Edmonton announced that they were laying off more than 2000 staff in order to save taxpayer dollars. What cost cutting measures is the Town of Vegreville taking at this time?

A: During our meeting when we talked about invoking the Local Emergency Act. We talked about what the future of the town looks like and moving forward some businesses and home owners tax times come how we may be able to help out. All the municipalities are waiting for the province to let us know a little bit more about we may or may not have in leeway we may have in collecting taxes, and see if we can get a little help there. We need to talk about our staffing levels and I would imagine come October our budgeting for the next year will look a whole different look than what we normally would do and real dollars we will be collecting in property taxes.

I’ve asked all of council to start thinking about this seriously because we are going to have to make some decisions in the near future here.

Q: What can citizens do to assist in the effort to deal with what may be coming?

A: More than anything, we need to support the local businesses. Because if our businesses go this town is going to be in tough shape. Being this hub for the region and attract a lot of people to our town and it keep us strong and our economy moving.

The biggest problem he sees how get the economy restarted. There’s a lot of people struggling right now and a lot of business owners have no guarantee about anything. Everyday you open your doors you have to learn how to make some money, cover all your bills and help out the families of your employees. We need to be there to support them, the whole community does.

Q: What message would you like to pass on to the citizens of Vegreville who are feeling uncertain of what tomorrow holds? A: We maybe apart, but we’ll get through this together.

This article has been edited for length and clarity. To read the full detailed version, please visit www. newsadvertiser.com