With the province dropping its mask mandate, what happens to local bylaws?

Region of Waterloo councillors will discuss the face covering bylaw in a special council meeting sometime next week, regional Chair Karen Redman says.

Regional staff have been asked to schedule a special council meeting, the date of which is yet to be announced. It comes after the provincial government announced it will lift most COVID-19 masking mandates on March 21.

Redman said in an email that the meeting will allow council to hear from staff as well as members of the public before making a decision on the bylaw.

The bylaw currently says the bylaw must be "reviewed by council once the face covering requirements for businesses and organizations in the regulations of the Reopening Ontario … are revoked." 

There is a second face covering bylaw in the region that covers transit. The province said masking on public transit would remain in place until April 27.

Redman said the region has "taken an evidence-based, pragmatic approach" to the COVID-19 pandemic and she looks forward to hearing from people, including the region's medical officer of health Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang.

Mask order to be lifted in Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph

The medical officer of health for Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health announced Wednesday that she would lift her section 22 order for masking on March 21, in lockstep with the province.

Dr. Nicola Mercer said public health would monitor COVID-19 trends locally and "respond as the situation requires."

She also asked people to be patient with each other in the coming weeks, because while some people are ready to remove their masks, "many are not."

She noted families with children under the age of five who cannot be vaccinated, people with underlying health conditions and people who "are just not ready to get back to normal" have "very valid" concerns about removing masks.

"There is no end date for the pandemic. We can each move forward only as quickly as our individual situations dictate," Mercer said in a statement.

"As a community, we have done so much together during this pandemic. We must continue to treat each other with empathy and kindness."