As P.E.I. considers lifting mask mandate, Opposition claims rules for MLAs create double standard

A week away from the date the P.E.I. government has indicated it plans to lift its public mask mandate April 7 masking practices among cabinet ministers became a topic of debate in theprovincial legislature, along with the rules MLAs are required to follow in the house.

"We cannot create two different standards for ourselves and for others," said Green Leader Peter Bevan-Baker, asking the province's deputy premier why some cabinet ministers choose to sit in the legislature without masks.

The province's premier is away after testing positive with COVID-19. At least two more MLAs, Bevan-Baker and Transportation Minister James Aylward, have tested positive since the start of the current sitting in February.

P.E.I.'s public mask mandate doesn't apply within the legislature. Government can't enforce policies in the legislature, like a mask mandate, that could prevent someone from carrying out their duties as an MLA.

MLAs can create and enforce their own rules around masking, but it wasn't immediately clear Thursday exactly what rules are currently in effect, or how they were created.

Mask usesplit along party lines

In practice, MLAs have been wearing masks while moving around the building and removing them while speaking.

As to whether they wear them throughout proceedings while seated at their desks, that practice has broken down along somewhat partisan lines.

All four Liberal members remove their masks. All eight Green MLAs keep theirs on. And the governing PCs are split, with six of them, give or take, regularly removing masks among them the ministers of education, social development, justice and fisheries.

"Visitors in the gallery have asked us why they must put on a mask in order to come in this legislature only to be greeted by MLAs without them," Bevan-Baker noted during question period.

He asked Deputy Premier Darlene Compton why government continues to insist it's following the advice of the province's chief public health officer "when most of cabinet seems unable or perhaps unwilling to follow her advice on masking?"

"I guess it would be their choice," Compton responded. "They're adhering to the rules. We all have the choice in this house to do that."

"Adhering to rules is not being leaders," Bevan-Baker said. "It's not leading by example and we need to demonstrate to Islanders that we are the ones who are taking great care."

Mask use 'strongly recommended' by committee

CBCNews asked the clerk of the legislature for information on the rules around masking. The clerk refused to provide any comment or information.

Speaker Colin LaVie, chair of the all-party committee that draws up rules for the legislature, said he could not comment until he ruled on a point of order brought forward Thursday by Environment Minister Steven Myers on the issue.

Any official rule would be drawn up by the Standing Committee on Legislative Management and then adopted by the assembly at large.

Online minutes from the committee's Nov. 3, 2020 meeting note that "the Committee continues to strongly recommend the wearing of masks in the Parliamentary Precinct."

A year later, in Nov. 2021, the committee passed a motion requiring members of the public to wear masks, who were being allowed to attend proceedings of the legislature for the first time since the pandemic began.

The same motion says members of the media are not required to wear masks, but makes no mention of rules for staff or MLAs.

The following month, in Dec. 2021, the Omicron wave hit P.E.I. and for the first time the province began recording significant numbers of COVID-19 cases.

N.S., N.B. legislatures require masks

In New Brunswick, strict masking rules remain in place for MLAs in the legislature despite the province lifting its provincial mask mandate.

In Nova Scotia, the Speaker is requiring masks andthreatening to shut down the legislature in light of six COVID-19 cases there since the start of the spring sitting.

Dr. Lisa Barrett, an infectious disease specialist at Dalhousie University, told CBC that in order for masking to be effective"it requires most people to mask."

'Record amounts of virus around'

When asked about MLAs choosing not to do that, she said "it's important for a couple things to be recognized for people to make informed decisions for themselves and their communities and loved ones."

First, she said, it's important to understand "there is a lot, probably record amounts, of virus around."

Secondly, she said while some provinces have been lifting mandates and the requirement to wear masks, "public health in many places is still recommending [masking] even though the mandate's gone."

The P.E.I. government has switched to reporting COVID-19 statistics once per week.

On Tuesday, the province reported two new COVID-19 deaths in the province, bringing the total since January to 18.

Over the past week, the province said it had recorded an average of 350 new COVID-19 cases per day, even with a recent change in testing protocols that means Islanders who test positive through a self-administered rapid test aren't counted in the province's numbers.

In its update, P.E.I. said it had 3,487 confirmedactive cases, just over two per cent of the population.

When asked if P.E.I. planned to move ahead with lifting its mask mandate next Thursday as planned, Health Minister Ernie Hudson did not provide a definitive answer.

"Over the last two-plus years, we have taken our direction from [the Chief Public Health Office]," he said. "We will continue to do so."