WE MUST KEEP PARTISANSHIP AWAY FROM OUR REOPENING
Monday is opening day in Saskatchewan.
Let’s hope that history will kindly refer to this day as the one in which we all got together and took our first small, cautious steps toward returning to social and economic normalcy in the wake of the Great Pandemic of 2020, rather that the day in which we opened up old wounds that tore us apart.
There is that danger, because there’s always been a lot that’s divided us in Saskatchewan.
Left versus right. North versus south.
Rural versus urban. Independent entrepreneurship versus government-supported co-operativism.
Notwithstanding our own mythology about this being a place where neighbours help neighbours to make the best of our long, cold winters, there have always been deep, wide chasms between those that disagree.
And after seven weeks of shutdown, there may be a sense that the COVID-19 crisis is deepening some of these divisions more than it’s bringing us together.
Perhaps the most obvious one on the day the province reopens is that north-south division.
It’s no small irony that while the southern half of the province begins this reopening process, we’ve set up roadblocks to keep the north closed and contain the northern outbreak to the region.
Yes, we are literally dividing the province into geographic halves right now, but maybe we really need to dwell on the practical needs and less on the unsightliness of doing what obviously has to be done.
Outbreaks need to be contained, making it necessary to contain the virus within northern communities like La Loche and Beauval to isolate those who have been infected. One gets the inherent unfairness of this — especially, given La Loche’s history, but that’s all the more reason to delay reopening in these communities and in Lloydminster where there has also been an outbreak.
Obviously, the timing isn’t great for Premier Scott Moe’s plan and there are legitimate reasons to ask serious questions about the safety of reopening things given the COVID-19 case spikes in the north.
Obviously, it was unacceptable for the Saskatchewan Health Authority not to have been more forthright with the outbreak in Lloydminster. And Moe and Health Minister Jim Reiter bear equal responsibility for this and ensuring it doesn’t happen again.
And we cannot give government a free pass. Arguably, it’s more important than ever to demand accountability.
It’s especially important right now to base criticism on objective realities rather than politics or long-standing divisions. Concerns need to be fact-based, so let’s seriously and objectively take a look at the numbers — specifically, how the active numbers have been trending.
What’s going on in La Loche and now Beauval screams for government action right now. As of Monday morning, the “north” (which includes Lloydminster) and far north accounted for 99 of the province’s 122 “active” COVID-19 cases.
That, however, leaves only 23 known active cases in the rest of the province — seven in Regina, 16 in Saskatoon and zero cases through southern rural Saskatchewan. We shouldn’t lose perspective that, as Moe has pointed out, the fight against COVID-19 has been a success.
Nor should we overlook how much caution has been applied to the Sask. Party government reopening plan — or how badly we need to get things into gear.
While Moe may have been the first to announce a reopening plan, other provinces were quick to catch up.
No less than five provinces were unveiling their reopening plans Monday — many of which were dramatically more ambitious despite having more and more widespread COVID-19 cases in their jurisdictions.
Other provinces were opening retail Monday and more communal activities. Clearly, this is not a case of a business-oriented government going rogue by doing things others aren’t willing to do.
We need to recognize the legitimate problems accompanying the northern outbreak, but some need to see past their philosophical blinders and see this reopening as something else we just have to do.