Warwick Township is the first municipality in Lambton to end the State of Emergency declared when the pandemic began in 2020.

Mayor Jackie Rombouts brought the idea to council Monday.

“I believe that we have gotten to the point now where we can safely end the declaration that we are in emergency, based on the fact that we’re over a year and a half out and the numbers are starting to plateau and, in my mind, declaration of emergency is something that’s immediate and needs to be dealt with,” Rombouts told councillors.

“I don’t see this as being a huge thing; we’re definitely going to still take this very seriously. I know the community is well educated now in the protocols.”

Deputy Mayor Jerry Westgate agreed saying “It should be taken off now. We’re not really in an emergency as far as I’m concerned; we haven’t been for a while.”

But there were detractors to the idea including Councillor Todd White.

“I do see that Lambton is becoming a hot spot. I’m concerned it’s too early,” he says. “We’re going into the cold season. People have not been indoors yet… I just think you don’t want to create a situation where it’s going to get a lot worse because of a decision we’ve made in our own community.”

Councillor Colin Mitchell was also concerned the province may not provide as much COVID-19 funding. Rombouts says there are municipalities across the province that never declared an emergency and still receive funding.

Warwick just received an additional $29,318 in COVID funding from the province this week.

Rombouts says Lambton has considered the move as well, but so far hasn’t acted. And she says if need be, it can be reinstated.

“If we see this going in the wrong way we can declare it again, which would give us the opportunity to really enforce to our constituents how serious it’s getting.”

Administrators note even though the state of emergency has been lifted, all provincial health rules, including vaccine passports and masks, apply.