Saskatoon city council exploring possibility of implementing its own gathering restrictions

Saskatoon city councillors aren’t taking no for an answer.

At Monday’s Governance and Priorities committee meeting, they voted 7-4 in favour of a motion asking “that the Administration be directed to investigate and report back the implications of developing a City Bylaw to restrict gathering sizes in Saskatoon as per the requests of SHA Medical Health Officers.”

Councillors Darren Hill, Troy Davies, Bev Dubois, and Randy Donauer voted against the motion.

Davies said he believed a city bylaw on restricting gathering sizes would be confusing.

“Maybe we didn’t get the answer that we were all hoping for from the province, but now, because we didn’t get our answer we’re going to go back and reinvent the wheel … I think this is going to cause more confusion so as of today, I’m not going to support this. I believe we’ve done the work that we needed to do,” he said.

Deputy Mayor Cynthia Block said that since the pandemic began, the city has been taking advice from the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) in conjunction with the provincial government to try and ensure that all public health orders (PHOs) are upheld, and to try and keep the community as safe as possible.

On Sept. 29, council held a special meeting and unanimously agreed that Mayor Charlie Clark would send a letter to Premier Scott Moe, Health Minister Paul Merriman and chief medical health officer Dr. Saqib Shahab, asking for a PHO restricting gathering sizes in homes, businesses and city facilities where proof of vaccination isn’t required.

On Oct. 6, the province sent the following response to media, prior to officially notifying council: “The Government of Saskatchewan will not be making an order to limit gathering sizes. The vast majority of new cases and hospitalizations are (in) unvaccinated residents and those who are not vaccinated should get vaccinated.”

Block says the city has repeatedly heard from local medical health officials about concerns, especially with ICU capacity nearing or at its limit. As council considered what it could do next, she said councillors knew that while health isn’t a city responsibility, community safety is.

“The conversation was about ‘What is our jurisdiction? What are we able to do? What might we be able to do if we were able to achieve a bylaw?’ ” she said. “So we will be getting some reporting back from our administration just to find out what those parameters are.”

Block explained she and most other council members have received numerous emails and phone calls, urging them to do whatever they could to keep the community as safe as possible. The bylaw, if it’s even possible, would enact restrictions on gatherings in areas where there isn’t a currently a requirement for vaccination, proof of vaccination or proof of a negative COVID-19 test.

That would include restricting gatherings in homes.

“It is only because of the extremely high (COVID) numbers in our community right now that the majority of (the committee) has asked to see if we can strengthen those guidelines in our community,” she said.

But she added that the seven councillors who voted in favour of the motion are still hoping the province changes its mind on gathering sizes and will expand the public health order.

Clark said while enforcement may not ultimately be feasible, it’s important council has all of the information on its request.

Administration is expected to report back in time for the city council meeting Monday.