Lack of communication over COVID-19 between City of Saskatoon, province 'troubling': premier
CBC
Premier Scott Moe has weighed in on a City of Saskatoon motion that will look at creating its own gathering limits within the city.
On Monday, councillors voted in favour of looking into the possibility of writing a city bylaw to restrict gathering sizes in Saskatoon. For months, Saskatoon has led the province in COVID-19 cases. Council says it wants to find a measure to help keep new cases in check.
Speaking to CBC Radio's Saskatoon Morning on Tuesday, Premier Moe said he learned about the motion through the media.
"This is even a little bit troubling, actually, for the government of Saskatchewan," said Moe.
"[It's] a little bit unfortunate with respect to the communication lines that seem to have broken down with the City of Saskatoon, but I'm sure that'll improve in the days ahead."
The issue first began three weeks ago, when the City of Saskatoon sent a letter to the provincial government, asking for city-specific gathering limits.
Among other items, the city asked for a limit of 15 people at private gatherings, which includes gatherings at home.
However, the provincial government told the city in its own letter that no further limits on gatherings were being considered at that time.
In response, councillors voted in favour of looking into creating their own bylaw.
Saskatoon Mayor Charlie Clark said he would have preferred to see the province institute the order, but council felt it had to do something to decrease COVID-19 cases.
As of Monday's COVID-19 update from the province, the city had 859 active cases.
"Medical health officers have said that they feel that, given the crisis situation that we're in, we need to be doing everything we can to try and mitigate the spread of COVID," said Clark.
"So, we're just exploring all options and wanting to know as a city that we're doing everything we can."
Clark said that he has a regular line of communication with Minister of Government Relations Don McMorris and regularly participated in a weekly phone call with the province and Saskatchewan's mayors.
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