COVID-19 through the eyes of the Town of Whitecourt’s Director of Emergency Management

When COVID-19 made landfall, and sweeping restrictions followed, the Town of Whitecourt suffered just as any business would. “We are in service delivery, and if we can’t deliver those services, then we don’t have revenue coming in,” explained Doug Tymchyshyn, Director of both Community Safety and Emergency Management with the town. He said that the COVID-19 financial hit for the town sits at about $500,000. “Administration has gone through and tried to offset some of those revenue losses wherever we could.”

He said that they are looking into funding from the government to offset the loss. “They have offered some assistance to businesses, and they seem to have some recognition that municipalities have also taken a hit. We are no different than a business to a large extent. So, we are continuing to make those inquiries with the province to see what type of assistance they are contemplating for municipalities because we know this is not just us. We know it’s everybody because we all have to deal with the same restrictions,” said Tymchyshyn.

On the administration side, he said that they put plans in place to keep staff in individual cohorts just incase. “By doing that, if we did have a staff member come down with COVID, it would not take an entire team down. We had different teams working in different locations at different times.” He said that switching to split shifts went beyond just the town office. “We had half the staff in the office in the morning and half the staff in the afternoon. We did this to all of our facilities including the fire hall, management team, public works and water and sewer staff.”

Restrictions on programming meant that many casual staff members were laid off. As restrictions eased, Tymchyshyn said that many have since returned. “One of the things we did that was a little unique was that when we laid staff off, we did have several summer positions that we were going to be filling here at the town. We gave our internal laid off staff the first opportunity to fill those positions if they were qualified and if they were interested so they could come back to work as soon as possible.”

Most of the layoffs took place at the Allan & Jean Millar Centre because that is where much of the recreational programming takes place. Tymchyshyn said that they had innovative ideas brought forward by staff members on ways to deliver some services. These included workout videos that broadcasted on the AJMC Facebook page. Now that the AJMC is back opened, with restrictions in place, Tymchyshyn said that they have decided to keep the videos as a bonus for members. “They will have the ability to either go to the facility and take in a workout class, or they can use the videos to work out at home. That is something that was not even on our radar before. It was just one of those things we came up with in trying to keep the community physically fit while everything was being asked to stay home and isolate,” he said.

Some recreation areas remain closed currently, including the Rotary Park river slides, but the spray park is open, and some have wondered why one opened and not both. Tymchyshyn said that the issue is mainly about physical distancing. “People aren’t actually in the water like they would be if they were sliding down the river slides. At the spray park, you can maintain physical distancing because users can be in different locations.”

The town office is back operating at regular hours, but there are changes to how accessible the building is for residents. For now, residents are encouraged to call ahead and book a time to come in. You can drop in if you prefer, but you might have to wait. The outside door is unlocked, but the inside door is currently locked, and residents will have to ring the doorbell for assistance. “We only allow a maximum of two people in the building at any time.” He said if one person is being served that they can have one more person come in and wait while maintaining proper distancing. “If there’s already one person being served and one person waiting, then we also have the proper signing on the sidewalk outside of our building to have people wait while maintaining proper social distancing.”

One of the real positives that came out of this experience was that it made administration do an inventory of transferable skills for staff. “It was something we had never documented before. We may not have enough work for someone in their position however, if we need more support in another area as part of the emergency operation and based on the skill set they hold, we know we can utilize them in that area.” Tymchyshyn said the pandemic brought forward to the need to do it and that it is going to be part of their emergency management program going forward.

He said that they continue to monitor the numbers of cases each day and will change their plans if needed. “I think the numbers are higher than anyone wants to see them, and we’re hoping that people will continue to apply the restrictions. The biggest one is the physical distancing, and if you can’t do that, then wearing a mask. If they continue doing that, we are hoping we won’t see a significant second wave that would require the province to increase the restrictions again and shut down services,” said Tymchyshyn.

As of now, emergency services are still operating in a protected environment and those wanting to utilize transit will be required to have a mask of face covering. “I ask everyone to continue to work within the health restrictions established by the province. The more that we can adhere to those, the sooner we are all going to come out of this pandemic and the sooner we are going to move into phase 3 and face fewer restrictions. I know everybody is tired, and it’s been a long time, but it’s to all of our benefits to continue to practice those restrictions.”