I need to hear from you. Here's why.

Banff Avenue, Sunday June 28. Visitors are spaced out on an overcast, rainy day. However, less than 10 per cent of pedestrians wear masks.

Banff: Let’s Take a Bow

Banff’s story of our fight to contain the spread of Covid-19 remains unfinished, though we can take pride in what we have accomplished. We do know that two of the early chapters in our Covid-19 story are about caring and cooperation. Five months ago, on January 27, when I first raised Covid-19 in Town Council, none of us imagined this. Three months ago, once we started the State of Local Emergency, none of us knew how effective we would be in working together to slow the spread of the virus. And yet here we are with the curve flattened due to our concern for one another, and our diligence in following the solid leadership of Alberta Health (AHS) and Banff’s local Emergency Coordination Committee. We owe a debt of gratitude to AHS and our Town staff. I particularly applaud the ECC directors Chief Silvio Adamo, Town Manager Kelly Gibson, and Emergency Social Services Director Alison Gerrits, and Public Health Inspector Kori Woodard and her colleagues. Thanks, too, to local health care providers, businesses and residents, community groups and Parks Canada, all of whom sacrificed and worked together in remarkable cohesion to protect us and get us this far. These sacrifices are not over: many fellow residents remain unemployed; businesses risk closing; the hurt causes tensions in families for some, deep anxiety for others. Alas, we still have a long journey to a post-Covid-19 world.

As Banff prepares to welcome a tourist influx that on weekends has already been as high as 70% of normal, we face new challenges. The past three months were about keeping visitors out, but from here on we must contain Covid-19 with our doors thrown open to welcome many thousands of new faces.

With the virus very much alive (the number of Covid-19 cases in Alberta has jumped 40 per cent in the month of June) and tourists arriving and businesses reopening, the amount of human interaction in Banff is likely to catapult, so now is the right time to ask how we best protect our community in the next six months.

A New Bargain

I believe we have a choice: either we accept a new bargain, or we squander the individual, business and community sacrifices of the past four months. I believe this bargain, this new social compact, is clear: if we allow businesses to open and welcome visitors, we must, in exchange require far stronger personal, business and community efforts. 

Some people argue we don't need to accept that bargain. They seem to think the virus went away. Well, it's still here. The Alberta Health Service reports data publicly (https://www.alberta.ca/stats/covid-19-alberta-statistics.htm). On June 28, at the time of writing, we have 520 active cases in our Province, though in Banff, only 1 active case, and the infected person and close contacts are properly isolated. Let's put this number in perspective: we have more active cases in the Province now than in mid-March when we put in place stay-at-home orders. As recently as June 1 we had only 369 active cases. The daily case count has grown 40% since then. The virus is here like rice that has settled to the bottom of a soup bowl; when people start moving about, it's like stirring your soup spoon.

We want to avoid the situation happening in places in the USA that relaxed controls at the end of April. In the past four weeks, the case count in Texas has grown from less than a thousand new cases to over 5,000 new cases per day. Hospitals there are overwhelmed. By all means, let's avoid this.

I hear from fellow residents in Banff that they are concerned about next steps and whether we are identifying all the tools available to us. No other town in Alberta will have more of an influx of people. For other communities, abiding by the good AHS guidelines may well suffice, but the influx of visitors to Banff makes us vulnerable to an outbreak. So, I need to hear from you if you think our community can be more be proactive and “supplement” the AHS guidelines by developing homegrown initiatives that respond to Banff’s vulnerabilities? Homegrown approaches have worked very well in nearby High River (where the disastrous Cargill meat packing plant outbreak occurred) and in Wales (https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/how-one-british-town-managed-22147619).

To know what we may be missing in Banff, I think we should assume that the bar here needs to be higher than it is in other communities. Here are five obvious areas to which we should pay continued attention. As I share these thoughts, I welcome feedback and corrections, especially from public health specialists. Is there a missing piece? 

A Five-Part Plan

Communications.

Our Town’s communications with locals has been very effective so far, and it will be vital if personal mask use is not made mandatory by provincial legislation. Residents and visitors will need clear and frequent reminders to keep distancing and to wear masks whenever we are inside a building. Maybe even on arrival to town. Let's all understand that “when I wear a mask, I help others; and when others wear masks, they help me.” 

Public Health Inspections.

The work load for the Public Health Inspector has risen. I’m not sure that the number of public health inspectors has increased as much as, say, testing, another component of the public health system. If more support were helpful to the Public Health Inspector, how might the Town augment public health capacity? This could be especially important if we were to develop a local quality standard or mark for the tourism sector to promote. 

Testing.
What would it take to establish a high capacity for quick, local testing of front-line staff that would find cases before they are symptomatic? These may be questions for AHS and our local health care professionals. If they think much higher rates of testing could be useful, then how would we support this?

And should we encourage testing within businesses? We know staff care for one another, so could this concern for co-workers prompt Banff employees to get tested regularly?

Tracing.
Following a virus is different than pursuing it, hunting it down and cornering it. I want us to hunt this virus down, corner it and keep us safe.
What is Banff’s capacity for quick contact tracing? If we were to get a sudden spike in active COVID cases, are we ready to deploy enough trained contact tracers?
Given that much tracing happens via phone calls, do we have enough contact tracers who speak the languages represented in our population?
In business we look for lead indicators, so, too, with hunting down a virus in public health. Can we develop a local reporting system from businesses to the Town? For example, if employers (work supervisors or HR managers) know why people report off from work, could they report to the Town’s ECC and Alberta Health if a person reports covid-19 symptoms? It's worked in other communities. That type of reporting might be a lead-indicator. Medical offices could assist, too.

Isolation & Support.
Do we have sufficient isolation spaces if some infected persons live in close quarters or in congregant living situations and need separate food & shelter during a period of isolation/quarantine? Do we have ways to support others in a family group (with food, family care, and supplemental income) if one member needs to be apart from the rest for a period of isolation? If there are cost obstacles to this, or insurance barriers, then let’s identify that as a problem. It would be far more economical to pay for this support than to be forced to close down the town because of outbreaks.

I have already shared these five points with fellow Town Councillors and the leaders of our Emergency Coordination Committee. The officials in charge of the Covid-19 file are working hard. We're promoting hygiene, hand washing, and physical distancing. Mask use is encouraged but not mandatory, and it could be encouraged more. However, if we are going to do more as a community, those of us on Council and the ECC will need to hear from you, our fellow residents.

Let us hear from you

Let's take a bow. We have done very well as a community over the past three months. We owe our good health to one another and those agencies and officials – in both Banff and Edmonton – who have navigated our boat through the first three months of turbulence. I want to build on what we have achieved. I believe that we need to continue to do more in our community than what the AHS requires of other parts of Alberta. You've heard my thoughts. I want to know yours.

Banff Avenue, Sunday June 28. Hugh Pettigrew and Paco. Even the dog sets a good example.