St. Clair Township will not be implementing a mandatory mask bylaw.
During its virtual meeting Monday afternoon, council voted 4-3 against legislating the wearing of face coverings in indoor public spaces.
Mayor Steve Arnold cast the deciding vote.
"The county is going to deal with this in September and I just struggle with us doing a bunch of work if they're going to deal with it then," said Arnold. "So, I'll have to vote no at this time."
Councillor Tracy Kingston argued for a bylaw.
"For the number of people I've spoken to, probably 30 or 40 people, are all hoping, wishing, wanting us to put a mask bylaw in place," she said.
Councillors Jim Degurse and Pat Brown also supported mandatory masking, with Brown saying he would rather err on the side of caution given the global concerns about a possible second wave looming.
Councillor Rose Atkins said she found in a recent trip to an appliance centre that wearing a mask provides a false sense of security and can actually undermine physical distancing.
"Everyone was masked, I was masked and the employee was masked because of the bylaw, and the employee asked me to step closer and I said I'm physically distanced and he said we all have masks on, it doesn't matter. So it's not a good sense that we're getting from wearing a mask, and that's not what's keeping our numbers low and people out of the hospital."
Councillors Steve Miller and Bill Myers joined Atkins and the mayor to carry the vote against a bylaw. Mayor Arnold also commented that the onus is on businesses to police the wearing of masks whether there's a municipal bylaw in place or they have their own policy.
Last week, Plympton-Wyoming council also voted against a temporary bylaw.
So far, only two lower-tier municipalities in Lambton County -- the City of Sarnia, and the Town of Petrolia -- have legislation in place requiring masks in all indoor public spaces.
Point Edward council will meet in a special session on Thursday to consider enacting a temporary mandatory mask bylaw.
-With files from Colin Gowdy
