City calls on province to create tougher COVID-19 restrictions

While the province has every right to override the city’s emergency measures declaration, Regina’s mayor, at least one city councillor and hundreds of people who signed a petition are urging the Saskatchewan government to ramp up stricter measures to match what council voted for on Friday.

The two levels of government appear to be reacting at different levels to the potential spread of COVID-19.

“The province has said they will be tightening up regulations and we urge them to do it sooner rather than later,” Mayor Michael Fougere said at City Hall on Monday. “This is all about getting ahead of the curve to ensure that we don’t wait until we have community transmission before we act more profoundly.”

Fougere said the provincial government was informed of the city’s plan to declare a state of emergency ahead of the council meeting on Friday. He was disappointed with the province’s move to override the measures instead of matching them to stay ahead of the crisis.

“Speed trumps perfection in many ways and we believe this is the way to be going,” Fougere said.

While many people were confused about which orders to follow over the weekend, Fougere said he heard a lot of support for Regina’s stricter measures like closing all non-essential retail stores and limiting gatherings to five people instead of 25.

He understands the need for more consistency across the province to provide clear directions to the public, but again urged the province to take action faster.

“I respect their opinion and I respectfully ask them to add and incorporate what we had in ours and maybe more to lock down more (things) more quickly,” Fougere said.

Fougere noted the city is relaxing some bylaws during this time, particularly around parking. He said businesses are aware of deferrals for commercial taxes and utility payments. He said the city may have more to say about help for local businesses in the future, but nothing has been decided yet.

He pointed to the supports being offered by the federal and provincial governments for financial aid, saying most of the help businesses will need goes beyond the capacity of the city to deal with.

In conversations with the Chamber of Commerce, Fougere said it was disappointed in business closures but knows it’s necessary and simply wants to have a clear set of rules to follow.

Petition earns a lot of support

Meanwhile, Coun. Joel Murray hopes the province considers the message being sent by those who’ve signed his online petition, which calls on the government to preserve the municipality’s emergency measures for the COVID-19 pandemic.

As of Monday morning, his Change.org petition had garnered more than 1,200 signatures.

“Currently that’s being signed at basically one person per minute since I launched it. So that tells me that the public wants a very aggressive approach taken by their leadership,” Murray said.

“I don’t want to pit our council against the province. I think the province is doing a great job but I do think there’s more that can be done at this time.”

The city’s state of emergency restricted public gatherings to no more than five people and immediately ordered businesses that serve food to close, except for takeout and delivery.

As well, the city ordered all retailers to close on Monday, except for gas stations, grocery stores and pharmacies.

“A lot of it came from when (Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. Saqib Shahab) announced that he wouldn’t enter a room with more than five people. We took that as a very important message that he made,” Murray said.

“In hindsight, I hope that it’s an overestimation because that means that we saved lives. I would like to look back on this months later and say maybe we overreacted. I hope that’s the case because this is really a life-and-death scenario right now.”

Under the province’s rules, mass gatherings would be restricted to no more than 25. Dining room service at restaurants would end on Monday.

Over the weekend, Fougere said if the province disagreed with the city’s rules, then it would be the province’s orders that would take precedence.

That appeared to be the course the province wants to take. Government Relations Minister Lori Carr said the government wanted to avoid “a patchwork of restrictions and standards.”

“It is of the utmost importance that we maintain uniformity across Saskatchewan and reduce any level of confusion among our residents,” she said.

Murray pointed to the Cities Act, saying Regina has the authority to declare an emergency for seven days, with the caveat that it would be subject to the approval of the province.

“Leaders in Spain, Italy and France, if they were given the hindsight, I think they would have moved quicker,” he said.

“We’re being given a very precious and very narrow window of opportunity and I think we need to take it as quickly as we can.”

— With files from 980 CJME’s Britton Gray, Joseph Ho and Lisa Schick