Moe says Grey Cup, Country Thunder unlikely
REGINA Given the Saskatchewan government’s phased-in reopen plan and precautions due to COVID-19, many large events in the province have been called off or altered.
Several, however, have yet to pull the plug. The Country Thunder Saskatchewan festival, for example, scheduled for July 9-12 in Craven, has not announced a change of plans.
Country Thunder responded on Monday afternoon to a woman who asked if it was cancelled: “At this time the festival will continue as planned. We will let you know if anything changes.”
“If an event like Country Thunder wanted to occur today, it wouldn’t be able to under the public health orders that we have with gatherings of 10 people and trying to keep those gatherings to one, maybe two, possibly three households,” Premier Scott Moe said Monday at the Legislature in Regina.
“If those public gathering sizes would expand to … many thousands, between now and July, then I suppose that event would be able to go ahead. Doesn’t appear that that will be the case for many events this summer, unfortunately, including up to and potentially including even this fall’s Grey Cup …” added Moe.
“Public health orders wouldn’t allow events like that right now and quite likely won’t for the foreseeable future.”
Moe suggested it’s unlikely that an organizer would go ahead and set up the infrastructure to host a large event, contrary to public health orders. In that hypothetical scenario, it is unclear whether there would be fines, a police response or some other recourse.
“I wouldn’t expect anything like that to occur from any of the organizers that I know of that have held festivals, such as Country Thunder, such as the Grey Cup, you name it. So I don’t think that will actually be the case,” said Moe.
“However in saying that, each of these distinct organizations are their own organizations … and if they don’t want to actually officially cancel that event until the very last opportunity that they have, that’s their prerogative and we respect that.”
He encouraged people to “get online and support some of the great music and even maybe some of the virtual festivals that we have access to.”
Next week sees Regina’s 29th annual Cathedral Village Arts Festival host a weeklong, totally digital event for the first time.
The Saskatchewan Festival of Words, normally hosted in Moose Jaw, is planning a virtual festival for July.
Others have, at this point, announced postponements or cancellation, including the Regina Folk Festival and Mosaic multicultural festival in Regina, and Saskatoon’s Saskatchewan Jazz Festival, fringe festival, and Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan.
While the Saskatoon Exhibition on Monday announced it would cancel 2020’s event, the Queen City Exhibition in Regina has yet to announce a decision.
The Western Development Museum on Monday cancelled its summer events and camps at its sites in North Battleford, Yorkton, Saskatoon and Moose Jaw, including Pion-era in Saskatoon, Those Were The Days in North Battleford and the Threshermen’s Show & Seniors’ Festival in Yorkton.
The Western Development Museum is part of Phase 4 of the province’s Reopen Saskatchewan Plan for a phased return of businesses and other activities. There is currently no timeline for when that phase of the plan could take effect.
CASE COUNTS
Four new cases were announced Monday, all in La Loche. As of Monday, there were 151 active cases of COVID -19 in the Far North, of 199 active cases provincewide.
Given checkpoints in the La Loche area, Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency president Marlo Pritchard said he is following up on concerns he has heard about people being stopped from doing necessary errands like getting groceries.
“The way the order is worded is it’s to get essential services or groceries at a location closest to their home address,” said Pritchard, adding people sometimes want to go beyond their local community for services.
Saskatchewan chief medical officer Dr. Saqib Shahab said the effective reproductive number (Rt) in La Loche is two; an Rt less than one is required for the virus to peter out.
Provincewide, the Rt is 0.74, said Shahab.
In other regions, Saskatchewan’s active cases numbers are 33 in the north; 13 in Saskatoon; one in the central region; one in Regina; and zero in the south.
Lloydminster, which had previously had an outbreak, began Phase 1 of the Reopen Saskatchewan plan on Monday.
Phase 2 is set for May 19, as with most other places in the province.
Phase 2 includes hair salons, retailers (including florists, vape shops, clothing stores and thrift stores), marinas, farmers’ markets and travel agencies.
“Based on the discipline and the good practices Saskatchewan residents have followed to date, we remain confident that we can continue to reopen more of our economy while continuing to control the spread of COVID-19,” said Moe.
REOPENING THE LEGISLATURE
Opposition Leader Ryan Meili publicized a letter he sent to the premier on Monday, calling on Moe to meet and discuss a plan to reopen the legislature in some capacity.
“There needs to be an opportunity to have that debate, that back and forth, between the premier, myself, and our two caucuses to actually come up with the best plan,” Meili told reporters on Monday morning.
He said it’s imperative to not have “just a one-party state with a government doing whatever they wish with a blank cheque. There needs to be accountability; you get better results when there is.”
Moe responded that there has been discussion on reopening the legislature, with more meetings on the topic this week.
“I’m sure the leader of the Opposition is aware that that work is going on and I would be surprised if he wasn’t aware that that work is going on,” said Moe.
COVID-19 has changed everything for everyone
MARK REGIER, Prairieland Park CEO, announcing the cancellation of the Saskatoon Exhibition for the first time in its 135 year history