Cold Lake to ask province to allow feds COVID tracing app in Alberta

The City of Cold Lake will ask the Government of Alberta to consider allowing the federal government’s contact tracing application in Alberta, or to harmonize the provincial and federal tracing applications.

“Our city is close to the Saskatchewan border, and home to CFB Cold Lake, both of which create a demand for interprovincial contact tracing,” Mayor Craig Copeland said in a press release Thursday.

“We feel the ability to provide a voluntary contact tracing application that allows for a nation-wide picture will save valuable resources occupied with contact tracing, while also aiding economic recovery by allowing for safe interprovincial travel and trade.”

Cold Lake city council recognized the Government of Alberta for its quick work in developing and deploying the ABTraceTogether application.

The later release of the federal application created concerns over the ability to coordinate between the two applications and ensuring a critical mass of people using one platform to aid in the contact tracing process.

Although the federal application may have been introduced later, it has the capability to monitor movement throughout Canada.

The City of Cold Lake passed a motion to ask the provincial government and Alberta municipalities to consider working towards either harmonizing the provincial tracing application with the federal application, or simply allowing the federal application in Alberta.

The issue was raised and passed in council, after a Notice of Motion was brought forward by Councillor Chris Vining.

There are 78 active cases in Cold Lake’s “local geographic area” on the province’s virus data map as of Thursday.