Youth worker to be hired as part of virus response

Saskatoon city council is dipping into its strategic priorities fund to ensure young people are included in what has been described as an “unprecedented” collaboration aimed at ensuring the city’s most vulnerable people are not forgotten amid the COVID -19 pandemic.

“The needs of youth and families have been a concern for some time,” Coun. Hilary Gough said in making the request for $8,030, which along with $4,000 in inkind donations will cover the cost of hiring a young person to work alongside community organizations.

In an interview Wednesday afternoon, after a council committee unanimously approved the request, Gough said it is clear the response to COVID -19 needs to be community-wide, and a potential gap exists without young people weighing in on decisions that will affect other young people.

“We will get something wrong if we aren’t including a diversity of voices,” Gough said.

The three-month project will allow a group of agencies and non-profits led by AIDS Saskatoon to recruit and train a young person to help reach people in the community who need assistance and identify gaps in planning and response that affect youth.

“We can’t make good decisions about what’s needed in (the) community without hearing that voice,” added Colleen Christopherson-cote,

the incident commander for the effort, which has already established hubs to help vulnerable people.

While some logistical details remain, such as whether the youth will act as a liaison or be able to visit the hubs, Christopherson-cote said the aim is to have someone in place tomorrow.

At this point, she said, “everything needs to be implemented yesterday.”

The money is expected to be drawn from council’s pre-existing strategic priorities fund, which has been used once previously and is currently sitting at $45,875.

Coun. Mairin Loewen emphasized that the spend will not affect the approved budget or the mill rate.

Saskatchewan Health Authority deputy medical health officer Johnmark Opondo and Suzanne Mahaffey, the authority’s incident commander for the Saskatoon area, also addressed the meeting and fielded a range of questions from city councillors.

Coun. Bev Dubois asked why liquor stores are expected to remain open as the coronavirus shuts down most businesses, leading Opondo to suggest the reason has to do with maintaining public order and ensuring people don’t find “creative” home solutions.

A leaked Saskatchewan Health Authority report, which suggested the virus could overwhelm the province’s health-care system, indicated local field hospitals may be needed.

Mahaffey said discussions about the use of civic facilities could occur in the next week.

The city has already taken a series of measures to ease the financial burden on residents as the pandemic sweeps across the country, including waiving late payment fees for property taxes and utility accounts.

It has also closed all civic facilities to help prevent the virus spreading.

Late Tuesday afternoon, the city ordered all playgrounds and play structures closed. There are thought to be around 250 such structures in the city.

Asked whether people will obey the order, Saskatoon general manager of community services Lynne Lacroix said the city’s “best line of defence” is for every single resident to respect directives aimed at keeping them safe.

City manager Jeff Jorgenson told council the city “needs to do everything it can to keep (construction) contracts going” as the temperature rises and what was expected to be — though no longer is — a typical construction season gets underway.

At least one major project has already been deferred.

Allan Construction Ltd. said Wednesday through the city it will put off restarting the Sid Buckwold

Bridge rehabilitation until April 6, to ensure it can ensure its workers are safe.

Traffic is not expected to be affected during the deferral. Jorgenson told council work is underway to determine what can continue, which in cases such as the lead line replacement program involved juggling potentially competing priorities.

That is an important public health program that can be implemented with little disruption to water service, which creates a “tough decision” for city staff tasked with determining whether it should go ahead or be deferred, he said.

Jorgenson was once again emphatic that there is currently “no reason to believe any of the city’s critical services are at any kind of risk.”