“We can not create two different models for ourselves and for others,” said Green Party leader Peter Bevan-Baker, asking the deputy provincial minister why some ministers choose to sit in the legislature without masks. The prime minister of the province is missing after he tested positive for COVID-19. At least two other MLAs, Bevan-Baker and Transport Secretary James Aylward, have been positive since the start of the current meeting in February. The PEI public mask mandate does not apply within the legislature. The government can not impose policies on the legislature, such as a mask mandate, that could prevent someone from performing their duties as an MLA. MLAs can create and enforce their own coverage rules, but it was not immediately clear on Thursday exactly what rules currently apply or how they were created.

The use of the mask is divided according to the party lines

In practice, MLAs wore masks while moving around the building and removed them while talking. As for whether they wear them throughout the process while sitting at their desks, this practice has collapsed on somewhat partisan lines. All four members of the Liberal Democratic Party are removing their masks. All eight Green MLAs continue their own. And the ruling computers are split, with six of them giving or taking, regularly removing masks – among them the ministers of education, social development, justice and fisheries. Surrounded by colleagues in masks, Green MLA Michele Beaton speaks to the PEI legislature on Wednesday, March 30th. The use of masks at home is partly divided into party lines, with the Greens wearing them while sitting, the Liberals removing them and the computers being separated. (P.E.I. Legislative Assembly.)
“Visitors to our gallery asked why they had to wear a mask to come to this parliament just to be greeted by the MLA without them,” Bevan-Baker said during questioning. He asked Deputy Prime Minister Darlene Compton why the government continues to insist that it follow the advice of the county chief of public health “when most of the cabinet seems incapable or perhaps reluctant to follow her advice for coverage?” “I guess it would be their choice,” Compton replied. “They follow the rules. We all have the choice in this house to do it.” “Following the rules does not mean being a leader,” said Bevan-Baker. “It does not set an example and we must show the islanders that we are the ones who pay a lot of attention.”

CBC News asked the legislator’s staff for information about the coverage rules. The official declined to comment or comment. Speaker Colin LaVie, chairman of the All-Party Committee on Rules for the Legislature, said he could not comment until a decision was made on Thursday by Environment Secretary Steven Myers. Any formal rule will be drafted by the Standing Committee on Legislative Management and will then be approved by the general assembly. The minutes from the committee meeting on 3 November 2020 note that “the Commission continues to strongly recommend the use of a mask in the Parliamentary District”. A year later, in November 2021, the committee approved a proposal requiring members of the public to wear masks, which allowed them to attend legislative proceedings for the first time since the pandemic began. The same sentence states that members of the media are not required to wear masks, but does not state rules for staff or MLAs. The following month, in December 2021, the Omicron wave hit the PEI and for the first time the province began to record significant numbers of COVID-19 cases.

NS, NB legislatures require masks

In New Brunswick, strict coverage rules for MLAs still apply in the legislature, despite the county lifting the mandate of the county mask. In Nova Scotia, the President is demanding masks and threatening to shut down the legislature over six COVID-19 cases there since the start of the spring session. Dr Lisa Barrett, an infectious disease specialist at Dalhousie University, told CBC that for the mask to be effective, it “requires most people to be covered”.

“Record amounts of virus around”

When asked about MLAs who chose not to do so, he said “it is important to recognize a few things so that people can make informed decisions about themselves, their communities and their loved ones.” First, he said, it is important to understand that “there are many, probably record amounts, of virus around.” Dr. Lisa Barrett, an infectious disease researcher and clinician at Dalhousie University, says that for the mask to be effective, most people in an area must wear it. (CBC)
Second, he said, while some provinces have lifted orders and requirement to wear masks, “public health in many places is still [masking] even though the order is gone “. The PEI government changed its COVID-19 statistics report once a week. On Tuesday, the county reported two new deaths from COVID-19 in the county, bringing the total from January to 18. Last week, the county said it had recorded an average of 350 new COVID-19 cases a day, even with a recent change in test protocols meaning that islanders who test positive on a self-administered rapid test are not counted in county numbers. . In its update, the PEI said it had 3,487 confirmed active cases, just over 2% of the population. When asked if the PEI planned to proceed with the removal of its mask mandate next Thursday as scheduled, Health Secretary Ernie Hudson did not give a definitive answer. “For the last two years or so, we have taken our directions [the Chief Public Health Office]”, he said. “We will continue to do so.”