Lambton County Council overwhelmingly rejected the latest request by Sarnia's mayor to adopt a mandatory mask bylaw Wednesday.
Mike Bradley's motion asking the county federation's 11 municipalities to reconsider its decision made two months ago not to legislate masks was defeated by a weighted vote of 29-8.
Petrolia Mayor Brad Loosley and Sarnia Councillor Dave Boushy were the only members to support Bradley's request.
"Sarnia, Petrolia, Lambton Shores and Point Edward have passed their own mandatory bylaws and some of the other smaller communities have done their own vote and some have turned it down," said Point Edward Mayor Bev Hand. "I think we're just at a different point in time and I didn't want to impose a decision on some small communities that have already made their own community's decision."
Like Mayor Hand, Sarnia Councillor Brian White also voted for a bylaw in his community, but not at the county level.
"Once the decision of the upper-tier government was made, I believe it's incredibly important because we would have then turned around potentially and slapped them in the face. That's how it would have felt to me if somebody said we allowed you to make a decision but you didn't make the right decision so now we're going to try and overturn your will," he said.
Enniskillen Township Mayor Kevin Marriott stood by the advice from Lambton's medical officer of health to encourage, rather than mandate, those who are capable of doing so, to wear a mask in indoor public facilities when physical social distancing is not possible.
"Many politicians have been condemned for not following their professional medical advice and so in this case, I believe that's why county council voted the way they did the first time and now that there is a patchwork, I believe that patchwork is going to work because it does cover the biggest areas and biggest exposure to people being in public places."
Lambton County is the only region in the province that hasn't fully mandated a mandatory mask bylaw.
Plympton-Wyoming, Warwick Township, Dawn-Euphemia and St. Clair Township all voted against mandatory masks.
The matter has not been discussed in Brooke-Alvinston, Oil Springs, or Enniskillen Township.