Earlier today Milton Town Council unanimously endorsed a recommendation brought forward by myself & Regional Councillor Zeeshan Hamid to have Halton Region discuss & vote on a region wide mandatory mask bylaw. The next meeting will be Wednesday July 15th.
Over the course of the last number of days, Halton Region municipalities have either passed their own local bylaw for mandatory masks or asked Halton Region to do the same. Milton Council decided bringing the debate and bylaw to the upper tier of local government to be a better choice, so that if a mandatory mask bylaw is passed, it covers all 4 local municipalities.
One of the consistent themes of the discussion by council was to in fact have this debate at the Region to ensure uniformity throughout Oakville, Burlington, Halton Hills & Milton.
Local members of council took this opportunity of the special council meeting to outline a number of questions and concerns they have heard on behalf of their ward residents.
Councillor Sameera Ali brought up some very valid concerns regarding special needs residents, those who are hard of hearing & those who have medical conditions that might cause issues in wearing cloth/disposable masks.
All members of Regional Council noted these and other comments & will get those answers from Halton staff and our Medical Officer of Health.
The draft bylaw from Halton Region will be made available online for council and the public tomorrow and will be discussed and voted upon during the July 15th Halton Region Council meeting.
I’d like to thank my council colleagues for their support and comments made during the meeting. This is obviously a hot button issue with lots of viewpoints to take into consideration. As always I’m looking for your comments and you can email me mike.cluett@milton.ca