Tuesday April 7, 2020 ~ LANGFORD
by Mary Brooke, editor ~ West Shore Voice News
The City of Langford Regular Council Meeting on Monday April 6 seemed like things were almost back to normal.
The meeting was posted on the regular time schedule (instead of being a ‘Special’ meeting), it was held in Council Chambers (not outdoors in the back parking lot, as it was on March 19 shortly after official declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic, and not at the City Centre Grille as it was held on February 25 for the co-signing of an agreement with the Maritime Museum of BC), with staff in attendance and a time slot for public participation.
But in this time of physical distancing, the staff attendance was bare bones, most of council attended via Zoom or by phone, and public attendance (five people) was remote as well. To follow who was talking, for participants this style of meeting relied on the familiarity of voices of people they’ve known for years, in addition of course to the digital tracking of phone numbers. It’s a new way of conducting business with dependencies on previous known ways combined with familiar technologies being used for a new purpose.
As are most Langford council meetings, this one was short and to the point, with minimal-to-no discussion. Key items were receipt of a staff report called “Update on City of Langford COVID-19 Initiatives”, and several bylaws that were promptly dealt with.
Three of the bylaws (#1907, 1908, and #1909) had to do strengthening or clarify the actions that are expected or may be taken by the city’s four bylaw officers in light of COVID-19 realities.
Already in place is the City’s authority to suspend or revoke a business licence for not complying with the public health orders of the Provincial Health Officer (i.e. no more than 50 people are allowed to gather).
The City can also require checkout lineups to be marked with tape or cones every two meters, require plexiglass barriers at checkout locations, require adequate separation between multiple retail checkouts, and that retail aisles be marked to show which direction customers should walk. Reusable containers/bags are prohibited (by provincial order) as is the sale of bulk food items.
Businesses can be fined if they continue to operate after a licence has been suspended or revoked.
The three new bylaws (one of which got immediate approval last night, and the other two must wait for public input) — as with all files in Langford — would lead first to educating a business of these new regulations and work with businesses to gain voluntary compliance before proceeding down a path to enforcement.
The key component of the “Update on City of Langford COVID-19 Initiatives” report was to effectively approve a budget of $400,000 to cover off the following, which to date have had a budget implication of $354,297.
- COVID-Langford.com Initiative ($53,000 start up cost)
- Media and public information campaign ($49,746): including digital signage, radio spots, lawn signs, posters for kiosks/parks/trails, ads in newspapers and on social media, van decals, banner across Goldstream Avenue, and flyers (18,300) to homes via Canada Post.
- Printing and installation of physical distancing markers for businesses ($17,338).
- Handheld temperature sensors ($1,500): for use by businesses and other key partners, to help detect if employees have a fever so they can go home and self-isolate)/
- Protective Masks and Face Shields ($80,000): for 40,000 non-medical-grade face masks and 5,000 face shields/
- Home Testing Kits ($50,000): Five-minute home testing kits (awaiting certification by federal government).
- Accommodation for Front-Line Workers ($20,000): this is being shared with the United Way on a cost-matching basis.
- Detailed Research from Royal Roads University Students ($10,000): look into policies and procedures in other jurisdictions that could be used in Langford.
- COVID Information Mobile Information Van ($1,316): refit City info centre van.
- Hand Sanitizer ($24,397): for use by staff at the fire halls, RCMP Station, and city hall.
- Resident Check-In Hotline. This activity uses lists from Canada 411. As of last week, 600 people had been contacted by city staff. Feedback has been “overwhelmingly positive”. The exercise is to mainly look for people who are not getting support from friends or family locally. Then that information is will be shared with others (if the person wishes); privacy is respected.
- Business Check-In Hotline. This activity uses the Langford City business licence database to call commercial businesses. Emails with resources including the Langford Business Resource Guide are going to all emails on file which includes home-based businesses.
On March 19, Council approved $400,000 toward COVID-19 initiatives. About $175,000 of that has been transferred over from the remaining Danbrook One housing relief fund (from December 2019). The remainder of the funding is the remaining surplus from its own Emergency Operations Fund, of which the City has set aside $400,000 for 2020.
Langford Mayor Stew Young has donated $60,000 of his own money toward COVID-19 supports in his community. He has had COVID-19 on his radar since the end of December, taking early note of the creeping pandemic as the infection was first rampant in China’s Hubei province and then spread in areas of Asia and among travellers on cruise ships. By the end of February he appeared to be ramping up to what soon emerged as the COVID-Langford initiative which exists at its core as an expression of the mayor for his lifelong home town.
A GoFundMe page called COVID-19 Langford Response Team has to date accumulated $17,130 (as at 11 pm on April 7, 2020), of its $100,000 goal.
The new bylaws effectively enable residents to call with any concerns about breaches of the physical distancing protocols that were ordered by the Provincial Health Officer. If someone is fined, the maximum is $500. However if an offence ends up with someone in court, the maximum fine can be $10,000.
Physical distancing of two meters (six feet) is proving to be an effective measure to help prevent transmission of the COVID-19 coronavirus. Today Provincial Health Officer Dr Bonnie Henry seemed cautiously pleased about the relatively slow increment of COVID-19 confirmed cases in this province.
BC brought in orders for self-isolation and physical distancing (first called social distancing) by mid-March, and soon thereafter also cancelled in-classroom learning for grades K-12 (spring break started March 14 but students ultimately did not return to their classrooms on March 30 as would have originally been the case without COVID-19). Compared to Quebec, for example, where spring break was two weeks earlier and many Quebecers returned from travel abroad, BC’s early social containment has proven effective.
Meanwhile, a considerable outbreak in Washington State to the south of BC a few weeks ago did introduce more infection to BC in an unexpected fashion; eventually the Clipper ship between Seattle and Victoria was suspended and more recently the federal government closed Canada’s border to incoming non-essential travellers from the USA (though BC Health Minister Adrian Dix is still looking for enforcement improvements on that point).
==== LINKS
To see all COVID-19 articles by West Shore Voice News, use the Search Tool (magnifying glass) at the top of this page, and search for COVID-19.