10 Assiniboia Times, Assiniboia Saskatchewan -- July 10, 2020
Saskatchewan economy opens up further and it might be easier to visit grandma soon
In time for the Canada Day holiday, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe announced on June 30 some of the last stages of re-opening the provincial economy after the lockdown brought on by Photo by Brian Zinchuk the COVID-19 crisis.
This year’s ceremony is cancelled, but Heritage Saskatchewan is looking forward to 2021 In light of the ongoing and unpredictable nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, Heritage Saskatchewan postponed the 2020 Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan Heritage Awards originally planned for October 21. Heritage Saskatchewan said they acted out of concern and safety for the participants travelling from all reaches of the province to gather for the awards ceremony. Although this year’s much-anticipated event is cancelled, the organization tasked with preserving the province’s history encouraged groups and individuals to continue with their projects and share with Heritage Saskatchewan over social media. Saskatchewan Heritage hoped the citizens of the province will hold fast to
their commitment to living heritage during these uncertain times, as they believe that heritage will sustain communities. Also, the organization wanted to remind everyone that heritage is an important part of their overall well-being. Plans to continue the annual event will resume on October 2021. Each year, Saskatchewan Heritage has offered a five-year eligibility window for nominated projects to have been completed and/or taken place. Heritage Saskatchewan will extend the award eligibility to six years for 2021 because of this year’s cancellation. For more information, contact Katherine Gilks, Projects Coordinator, at kgilks@heritagesask.ca or phone at 306-780-9197 and 306-552-7892.
By Brian Zinchuk In time for the Canada Day holiday, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe announced on June 30 some of the last stages of re-opening the provincial economy after the lockdown brought on by the COVID-19 crisis. There were six new cases of COVID-19 and five recoveries in Saskatchewan on June 30, continuing a downward trend. Saskatchewan had 88 active cases. While larger events like Roughrider games might not yet be in the cards, casinos, bowling alleys and bingo halls can open on specified dates, and restaurants and bars will no longer be restricted to 50 per cent capacity. They will, however, have to ensure distancing measures are in place. Moe said, “This Monday, July the sixth, all indoor recreational facilities including rinks, indoor swimming pools and bowling alleys can reopen. All indoor sports and activities can begin. “Also, this Monday July the sixth, we’re removing the 50 per cent capacity limit on restaurants and bars. While there will be no specific percentage occupy occupancy cap, bars and restaurants will still need to maintain an occupancy level that maintains safe physical distancing for customers and for their staff. “At same date, bars and restaurants can reopen their VLT machines and recrea-
tional areas such as pool tables, video games, and darts.” On July 9, bingo halls and casinos can open. Each casino will have a cap on attendance. On July 16, restaurants and bars can have live entertainment. “A number of remaining outdoor sports activities can start with a limited number of spectators,” Moe said. This includes rodeos, barrel racing and stock car racing. Further guidelines will be released soon. “With these reopening virtually every kind of business facility service and activity in this province are now reopened. “I want to thank everyone in Saskatchewan for everything that you’ve done to control the spread of COVID-19,” Moe said. “I want to thank you for your patience as well as we moved as quickly as possible, but also as safely as possible through the reopening thesis. And I want to encourage everyone to continue all of the good practices that have gotten us this far.” Moe went on, “With case number is still rising in many other parts of the world, we know that COVID-19 has not disappeared. And it can spread very quickly if we let our guard down, even for a moment. And that’s why we still have to remain so careful. And why will we need, we will need to move forward very cautiously with phase five, which is lifting the restrictions on
large gatherings. We know that in Saskatchewan and elsewhere, large gatherings have resulted in some of the largest outbreaks. So, we will need to be very cautious in relaxing those restrictions. Visitation changes are coming Moe went on, “I also want to mention that our government and the scattering Health Authority are working on new guidelines to provide a greater opportunity to visit your loved ones in long term care and who may be in the hospital. We still have to be very careful in those facilities as that is where some of the most dangerous outbreaks in our nation and around the world have occurred. So, we are working to find the right balance that will keep everyone safe, while recognizing how critically important it is for hospital patients and our seniors in our long-term care homes to be able to see members of their family and we expect an announcement on this later this week.” Saskatchewan’s Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. Saqib Shahab emphasised keeping track on an ongoing basis of what you’ve done over the last two weeks. If there’s a public service announcement or you come down with symptoms, you can seek testing. He said clusters of infection will arise now and then, but seeking testing if unwell, maintaining distancing and wearing a mask will help.
Shahab noted the size of public gatherings is the remaining limit. Sizes of gatherings will continue to be looked at. With regards to wearing a mask, Moe said, “I’ve always said that if you are comfortable and feel more comfortable wearing a mask, in particular, if you’re not able to abide by the physical distancing standards, you should do so you should, you should do so and we should all be supportive of individuals that choose to do so. It does help. “Mask usage, as far as it being mandatory, may be a conversation that we may have to have in certain areas of the province if we should have a localized outbreak. We haven’t had to yet but, for instance, that would be something that I think we would want to have a very active discussion about prior to having to take more drastic action like closing sectors of the community, playgrounds, recreational activities and ultimately, last, but potentially a conversation in localized areas around you know, businesses having to close for a short period of time, we don’t want to get there. Asked if he wears a mask, Moe said he had one given to him by the Premier of Quebec, featuring a Montreal Canadiens logo. He planned on giving that to one of his nephews, a Habs fan, and then getting a Riders mask instead and sending one to Premier François Legault.
NDP questioned Sask. Party’s Lean PPE purge Information attained through Freedom of Information showed the provincial government paid US-based Lean consultants to lead health care workers through a PPE housecleaning at a pandemic supply warehouse in Regina with the explicit goal of donating, recycling or trashing 50 per cent of the pandemic stockpile. “The Sask. Party’s Lean consultants led health care professionals through a spring cleaning of the pandemic room at the Regina General Hospital with the goal of decreasing stocks by 50 per cent,” NDP Health Critic Vicki Mowat ex-
plained. “They Marie-Kondo’d our pandemic supply warehouse and we want to know how much that approach contributed to leaving us dangerously short of supplies this spring,” Mowat added. Of the 588,000 items in the room, close to 300,000 were trashed, including 166,000 N-95 masks, records specified. It was unclear how many of those items were replaced, but Sask. Party officials acknowledged in committee the just-in-time inventory model of health care delivery hasn’t worked for Saskatch-
ewan and risked making the province susceptible, especially during a time whenever supplies can’t be domestically sourced. With Saskatchewan Health Authority officials apprehensive about scarcities of personal protective gear, the NDP wanted to know whether the Sask. Party’s Lean approach to pandemic stockpiles had impacted Saskatchewan’s insufficiency in PPE equipment. In Question Period, Mowat called on Premier Moe to ask for forgiveness to frontline healthcare workers for putting them further at risk with the PPE shortages
this spring. “Frontline healthcare workers were raising the alarm about extremely limited supplies of badly needed equipment and were scrambling to ensure the health system was ready to keep people safe. It must have come as a slap in the face for those workers, when the premier denied there was a shortage of supplies on March 16,” Mowat said. “Will the premier apologize to the health workers he left scrambling because of supply shortages his government created, while he himself was denying those shortages even existed?”
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