Saskatoon city councillors want to know if they can implement gathering size limits to stop the spread of COVID-19 — because the Saskatchewan government won’t.
“This is unprecedented. It is by far much better for the provincial government to implement gathering sizes,” Mayor Charlie Clark said.
“The fact that we’re the only jurisdiction that doesn’t have gathering size restrictions — even Alberta does — it doesn’t make sense to me.”
Clark proposed a motion, during Monday’s governance and priorities committee meeting, that charges the city administration to investigate if and how the city can impose gathering size restrictions.
It passed, with seven votes in favour and four against.
Clark had previously written to Saskatchewan health minister Paul Merriman on Oct. 1 asking for a public health order to limit gathering sizes. On Oct. 7, the city received the reply.
“The province has indicated that they will not be implementing (gathering size restrictions) at this time,” Pamela Goulden-McLeod, the city’s director of emergency operations, stated.
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She then added “the (city’s COVID-19 response) framework and medical health officers indicate there is still a requirement for gathering restrictions in Saskatoon.”
The framework, which the council adopted in September, is a tiered classification of the threat COVID-19 poses to residents, as determined by Saskatchewan Health Authority medical health officers. They have determined the disease currently poses a high risk and so the framework directs the city to request a limit on gathering sizes from the provincial government.
It does not provide any guidance on what to do if the provincial government doesn’t listen.
In response to a question from Coun. Sarina Gersher, Goulden-McLeod clarified the advice from health officials applied to the city generally and that they didn’t get into the specifics of whether it would only apply to city facilities.
Soon after, the committee broke for nearly 20 minutes of private legal advice from city solicitor Cindy Yelland.
Coun. Bev Dubois seemed to reference the advice during the debate, when she stated “we heard from the city solicitor that no other municipalities, to her knowledge, in Canada, have put through a bylaw of this type and have had it coincide or have it approved by the provincial government.”
Ward 10 Coun. Zach Jeffries replied by saying other cities aren’t grappling with the issue because they don’t have to.
“We have the worst situation and zero guidance,” he said, referring to the provincial government.
“And that’s why no other municipalities in Canada are having to take any action or have these discussions, because they’re not being forced to due to an abdication of leadership.”
Ward 4’s Troy Davies and Ward 5’s Randy Donauer stated they weren’t supporting the motion because they believed voting it through would confuse residents about the role and authority held by the city versus that held by the provincial authority.
“We don’t have any responsibility for health, the province does, whether we like it or not,” Donauer said.
“And whether we agree with their decisions or not. It’s up to the minister of health to do these things.”
The motion passed with seven votes to four. Coun. Hill and Dubois also voted against.
The administration will report back at a later date.
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