Ongoing virus shutdown leaves citizenry restless

As COVID-19 cases decline, public expectations increase

It was a great week when it came to the fight to reduce COVID-19 cases in Saskatchewan.

From Monday to Thursday, the province averaged fewer new cases than days of the week — the best stretch since all this started on March 13, leaving us with 29 active cases. In fact, in the two weeks since the last major outbreak of 21 cases May 20, Saskatchewan has only had 21 new cases. This suggests we are winning the battle right now.

However, it wasn’t such a great week when it came to the Saskatchewan Party government’s managing of public expectations. And for the foreseeable future, that will be the tougher battle for Premier Scott Moe and his team.

Oh, it’s not as if they didn’t try to buoy the spirits of Saskatchewan people who have been virtual shut-ins for 12 weeks now.

In his Thursday news conference, Moe proclaimed Saskatchewan has been the best of the bad lot of provinces when it came to keeping people employed. The premier noted 87 per cent of working Saskatchewan people managed to keep working during the pandemic. Unfortunately, that was dashed by Friday’s monthly job numbers for May that reflected a more vividly negative reality — “512,700 people employed, a decrease of 73,400 jobs compared to May 2019.” Saskatchewan’s 12.5-per-cent year-over-year employment decline was better than in Alberta (14.8 per cent) and B.C. (15.2 per cent) but not as good as in Manitoba (10 per cent).

Hopefully, the numbers will be better in June as a result of Monday’s Stage 3 of the Re-open Saskatchewan plan that will permit the reopening of restaurants, bars, lounges, food courts, cafeterias, cafes, bistros (to half capacity), gyms and fitness facilities (with physical distancing restrictions) and daycares (to a maximum 15 kids per room).

Moe and chief medical health officer Dr. Saqib Shahab also announced amendments to Stage 4, which is now to come in two phases with, first, child and youth day camps and outdoor parks and, second, libraries, casinos, bingo halls, rinks and movie theatres.

The problem is that while COVID -19 cases in Saskatchewan decline, public expectations increase in reverse proportion. Alas, therein lies the problem for government as it hit home this week how miserable this COVID -19 fight still is and just how long it will be.

The ugly, long-haul reality started this week with the postponement of Craven’s Country Thunder until 2021. This was an expected move, but the annual music festival has truly become one of Saskatchewan’s touchstones.

The news of no “Craven” this year, was followed by comments from Shahab on Thursday that the pandemic is a “marathon,” with Stage 5 likely not happening until June 2021.

We all understood it would be a while before we would see large-crowd gatherings at entertainment and sporting events.

But Dr. Shahab’s warnings came as a gutpunch to Saskatchewan fans who rightly view the Roughriders’ CFL or the Rush’s National Lacrosse League as far more vulnerable. Now, they have to deal with the added prospects of the shuttering of the Western Hockey League, Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League, Canadian Junior Football League and university sports for another year.

And it isn’t just angst for sports fans. There are growing frustrations among parents that playgrounds, spray pads and sports fields will remain shut down, and many are now openly questioning whether, with so few new COVID -19 cases per day, there is any realistic danger in tearing down the yellow tape now on slides and swings.

Moe acknowledged Thursday he was feeling the heat from parents and vowed to have more to say next week.

Unfortunately, public impatience, demands and expectations are now running head-on into the overriding message that the novel coronavirus is present and that we are still very vulnerable to outbreaks brought in from elsewhere.

Not everyone is receptive to this notion and the greater the active case success, the harder it will be to sell. How Moe manages these expectations and determines when he needs to ease up a little may now be his biggest challenge. Mandryk is the political columnist for the

Regina Leader-post and Saskatoon Starphoenix.