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Town works to maintain critical services

The Town of Okotoks is striving to provide essential services throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, including water, sewer, waste services, RCMP, fire services, road maintenance and transit.
Okotoks Operations Centre 5020
The Town of Okotoks is striving to provide essential services throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, including water, sewer, waste services, RCMP, fire services, road maintenance and transit. (Brent Calver/Western Wheel)

Services of the Town of Okotoks continue to operate in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, with changes to procedures and processes to ensure community and staff health and safety.

Okotoks CAO Elaine Vincent informed council on March 23 there have been many questions amidst the general uncertainty of residents in town as to why certain departments were considered essential and why council continues to hold its regular meetings.

She said the Town is governed by several provincial acts, two of which are currently at play: the Municipal Government Act (MGA) that governs how municipalities operate and the Emergency Management Act, which requires each municipality to have an approved community emergency management plan – which she said the Town of Okotoks does.

“A key component of this is to have a business continuity plan ensuring we can maintain essential and critical services,” said Vincent.

Okotoks follows the Alberta Pandemic Influenza Plan as a guideline for the current COVID-19 outbreak, she said, and opened the Emergency Operations Centre on March 12 in response.

The EOC has declared five priorities: to maintain critical services to Okotokians, to support public health objectives, to protect staff and vulnerable citizens, to ensure long-term business resumption both internally and externally, and to ensure the Town can provide vital necessary services.

“These services will be maintained throughout the pandemic: water, sewer, waste collection including the operation of the Eco Centre, the RCMP, fire services, road maintenance,” said Vincent. “Transit was added as an essential service, and the other key piece you’re seeing in operation today is governance and emergency management.

“We need to ensure the governance body can function and we can make the critical emergency management decisions that we need to.”

In order to comply with mandates from the Province, Okotoks council will meeting only once per month for the foreseeable future, with at least two councillors and the deputy mayor attending via teleconference. At this time the public is not barred from attending council meetings, but residents are strongly urged to view the meeting via the Town’s live-stream, and there is limited, spaced-out seating in the council chambers gallery for those who choose to attend.

Those procedures may still change if the Alberta government decides to amend the MGA, said legislative and policy services manager Cathy Duplessis. Currently, the act does not permit council to prevent the public from attending its meetings, especially if there is a public hearing that could affect a landowner, and it also stipulates live-streaming is not adequate as the only means of public participation.

“We anticipate there being some changes,” said Duplessis. “We wait and we will of course implement anything the Province brings forward.”

In the meantime, Vincent said council has prioritized two specific areas for the Town during the pandemic: critical support to the business community and ensuring alternate activities to maintain the social fabric and connections within the community.

Some of that support could come from the Town’s on-demand transit service, she said. Right now, though ridership is half what it was a month ago and ride-sharing is minimized to promote social distancing, she said the numbers still prove it’s necessary for some people in the community who still need to get around for work or to get groceries.

In addition, as of March 27, Okotoks Transit is also available to help deliver groceries for those ordering by telephone or online at Okotoks Sobeys or Save-on Foods. The grocery stores are covering the $2.50 fare for transit deliveries, and the grocery service will be done in separate buses from passengers.

Other Town services have changed to accommodate public health and social distancing measures. All municipal services are now closed to the public for face-to-face interaction, though telephone and online assistance and services are still provided, and many staff are working from home.

The only exception to the rule at this time is the Eco Centre, said Vincent. Though the EOC initially intended to close the recycling centre, talks with staff revealed it wouldn’t be for the best.

“In conversation with the staff, they felt there was more risk if we actually closed the Eco Centre and they were faced with massive amounts of recyclables just left at the entry with exposure,” said Vincent. “Because of the way the Eco Centre has been physically laid out the staff feel they’re protected, they feel they can honour the social isolation and physical distancing.”

She said on the business community front, the Town’s economic development team is working with the Downtown Business Association and the Chamber of Commerce to identify strategies to assist business owners in Okotoks.

“They are striving to have the opportunity to have emergency business resumption plans in place for the community,” said Vincent.

The COVID-19 pandemic response is constantly evolving and the Town is working hard to adjust as the situation changes almost daily.

Based on news that Ontario and Quebec had closed all non-essential businesses, the EOC has been working on what that would look like in Okotoks, should Alberta follow suit, she said. It’s difficult to anticipate every card the government plays, and she said sometimes they get it right and other times they need to adapt to unexpected outcomes.

It’s about being ready to serve the community as best they can, said Vincent.

“We need to be nimble and responsive and inspire confidence in our community,” she said. “We need to know we’re ready, our business continuity plans have been implemented, and we will continue to deliver critical services to residents.

“We will do our best, but we are in it together.”

Krista Conrad, OkotoksToday.ca

COVID-19 UPDATE: Follow our COVID-19 special section for the latest local and national news on the coronavirus pandemic, as well as resources, FAQs and more.

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