The Government of Alberta announced that kids will be going back to school this fall, and last week they announced they will be wearing masks too.

Every student in Alberta will be provided with two masks to return to school with. Additionally, staff and teachers will also be receiving protective equipment.

On Sunday, Minister of Education, Adriana LaGrange announced how they will be supplying the masks.

“Some have recently questioned the ability of Alberta’s government to purchase the requisite 1.6 million reusable masks in time for the start of K-12 classes this fall. Orders totalling 1.7 million masks have been placed – one to IFR, an Alberta-based company, and the other to Old Navy. The total value of the mask contracts is $4.2 million.”

The Government stated that because of the urgency of the order, issuing a request for proposal would not allow the masks to be delivered in time.

“Given the expediency required, the Provincial Operations Centre (POC) has directly approached experienced, established vendors to fulfill personal protective equipment (PPE) needs for school reopening. Government of Alberta contracting policies allow for this expedited process in urgent situations, as a standard request for proposal tendering process would not allow the government to fulfill our schools’ needs in a timely manner required.”

The Minister went on to explain that she is confident these masks will be delivered on time as in the past the POC has successfully procured more than six million masks to Albertans.