NDP leader calls for checkpoints

Sites would urge non-essential travellers from virus hot-spot Alberta to turn back

Saskatchewan NDP Leader Ryan Meili is calling for checkpoints at the border with Alberta, which is battling much higher rates of COVID-19 with active cases surpassing 3,000 and growing fast.

There are now 88 active cases in Saskatchewan, by contrast. The province’s most troubling outbreak, in the northwestern community of La Loche, has been largely traced to an oilsands camp across the border near Fort Mcmurray.

Meili said informational checkpoints are now needed to encourage travellers from Alberta to turn around if they don’t need to cross for essential reasons. That goes for entry points into both northern and southern Saskatchewan.

“Ask people why they’re travelling,” Meili suggested. “If they are travelling for reasons that are avoidable, encourage them to make other plans, and keep track of what traffic is. I think a lot of what we need right now is information.”

Saskatchewan’s chief medical health officer has issued a recommendation against interprovincial travel. But Meili called for something with more “guts.”

Meili said the measures he supports wouldn’t actually ban travel into Saskatchewan. But mandatory options might need to be explored if too many are ignoring the recommendations, he suggested.

“If you’re discovering that you’ve got lots of unnecessary travel happening, despite it being a strong recommendation and those checkpoints in place, then we might need to go to stronger measures and actual prohibitions,” he said.

“I think only if you discover that there were ongoing failures to follow those recommendations would you need to introduce stronger enforcement.”

Premier Scott Moe has said restrictions on interprovincial travellers have been discussed, but he had nothing to add on Thursday. He again stated that travel is “not recommended.”

“We are confident in the measures we have in place,” he said.

RESTRICTIONS TIGHTENED FOR SASKATCHEWAN’S NORTH

The checkpoints that do currently exist, in Saskatchewan’s far north, will now be enforcing tightened restrictions as the government bans non-essential travel between most communities there.

On April 24, the province’s chief medical health officer restricted all non-critical travel into the Northern Saskatchewan Administration District, which covers a wide expanse of the province from roughly Tobin Lake all the way to the border with the Northwest Territories. That came in direct response to the outbreak in La Loche.

Moe said northern leaders have asked for additional restrictions during conversations with the minister of government relations.

“They don’t want to introduce COVID-19 into their communities,” said Moe. “If they have a low level, one or two cases today or zero, they don’t want it in there right now.”

That led the government to announce new public health orders on Thursday prohibiting non-essential travel into and out of communities in the district, including for those with primary residences there.

For the first time, the orders ban travel between those communities.

La Ronge and Stony Rapids are exempted, after their leaders asked to opt out, according to Moe. Travel related to delivery of essential services is still permitted.

Northern residents are ordered to remain in their communities and practise social distancing, with exceptions for critical trips like collecting groceries or going to medical appointments.

Meili said there isn’t enough funding in place to pay for the checkpoints. He called for $10 million from the province, though that is also meant to cover issues like food security and other challenges.

Buckley Belanger, the NDP MLA for the provincial riding that includes La Loche, said money is desperately needed.

“The communities themselves, whether they’re First Nations or Metis, they are the ones that are paying some of these people to man the checks stops. The province hasn’t been paying any of that,” he said.

“It’s a very expensive proposition.”

Moe’s government did announce additional supports on Thursday, committing $370,000 to the far north. Most of the money will go to the New North association to help support the checkpoints.

A sum of $20,000 will go directly to La Loche to support public safety, food security and educational initiatives, according to the government. Conservation officers are also assisting in the region.

Meili said that money is short of what northern leaders have asked for and “will not go very far.”

(Northern leaders) don’t want to introduce COVID-19 into their communities. If they have a low level, one or two cases today or zero, they don’t want it in there right now.