Alberta’s minister of primary and preventative health services spoke to reporters on Monday about a measles advisory issued for Parkland County last week.

Adriana LaGrange spoke about why health officials made the decision to issue the advisory for the area west of Edmonton.

“They couldn’t pinpoint it to a specific location or group but just wanted to make sure that people had that awareness,” LaGrange told reporters at an unrelated news conference on Monday.

“I spoke with the chief medical officer of health just on Friday and they felt this was the best approach: put it out as a bulletin so everybody is aware.”

The advisory left local officials concerned and confused about a lack of communication.

Parkland County Mayor Rod Shaigec said while the advisory was issued late last week, he and his council were never notified.

And as of Monday afternoon, he said his council had still not heard from a government health official.

“There’s been no correspondence from [Alberta Health Services] or the government of Alberta on this,” Shaigec said in an interview.

“I’m a little concerned because of the way this communication was shared and no specific details. We don’t know, you know, has there been an identified outbreak? One would expect there may have been, particularly if it’s Parkland County-wide, but there’s very little information that has been shared other than the notice itself.”

The advisory stated: “All individuals living, working or attending school in, or travelling to, Parkland County are advised to be aware of the current risk for measles disease.”

The advisory, which also encourages locals to get vaccinated, was shared on social media by the City of Spruce Grove.

The City of Spruce Grove posted on Facebook that it too had received no details about the broad advisory for Parkland County, and urged citizens to contact Alberta’s health agency.

“We (don’t) have any information further than what has been posted by the Alberta government,” Jennifer Hetherington, the communications director for Spruce Grove, said in an email.

“We are reaching out to Spruce Grove to make sure they received the information and answer any questions they may have,” Tom McMillan, an Alberta government spokesperson, said in a statement.

He said the preventative services health branch took over the advisories as part of the restructuring of AHS into four agencies.

“While we are continuing the same approaches previously leveraged by AHS, we appreciate stakeholders’ patience as we make this transition as seamless as possible,” McMillan said.