CALGARY -- With the second wave of COVID-19 growing, the Town of Drumheller, Alta. announced a state of local emergency on Monday, a move aimed at helping control the spread of cases, which will also give officials access to additional resources and special powers under the Emergency Management Act.

"The safety and wellbeing of our community continues to be our top priority," said deputy Mayor Jay Garbutt in a release. "This is tough, but we believe as a community we can work together to slow the spread."

The Emergency Management Act allows municipalities to exercise the same powers in a state of local emergency as the minister may exercise in a provincial state of emergency.

"We are not currently, nor do we anticipate, enacting an Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) or Incident Command Post (ICP)," said Darryl Drohomerski, chief administrative officer and director of emergency management for the town.

“We want to be prepared in the event cases continue to escalate. A SOLE will help us do this."

All town services continued to operate as of Nov. 23. .