Provincial government announces phased plan to re-open Saskatchewan economy
mliebenberg@prairiepost.com
The Saskatchewan government will implement a phased plan to gradually re-open the provincial economy while current public health restrictions remain in place to minimize the risk of COVID-19 infection.
Premier Scott Moe announced the plan during a live provincial broadcast on April 22, and the details of the Re-open Saskatchewan Plan were outlined the following day during a media briefing by the premier and Saskatchewan’s Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. Saqib Shahab.
Premier Moe thanked Saskatchewan residents during the provincial broadcast for their efforts to reduce the spread of the virus and to flatten the curve, which made it possible to consider measures to re-open the economy. He emphasized the need to proceed with great caution.
“Our government takes this decision extremely seriously,” he said. “We know there are risks on both sides. If we move too quickly, we risk increasing the spread of COVID-19. If we move too slowly, we risk permanent damage to the livelihoods of thousands of Saskatchewan people.”
He felt it is possible to find the right path to keep COVID-19 case numbers low and keep people safe, while at the same time allowing for businesses to reopen and people to get back to work.
“Again, let me be clear, this will be a gradual, methodical, and cautious process,” he emphasized. “It’s not like flipping on a light switch. If anything, it’s more like a dimmer switch that’s been turned down. Over the next several weeks, we will gradually be turning up the light once again on Saskatchewan’s economy.”
Premier Moe noted during the presentation of the plan on April 23 that it has been developed in close consultation with Saskatchewan’s Chief Medical Health Officer.
The re-opening process will happen in five phases, and only the initial two phases are tied to specific dates.
“We will carefully monitor transmission and other factors during each of those phases and we will adjust the plan, if required,” he said.
Public health restrictions to reduce the risk of infection will remain in place for the foreseeable future and the government is looking at ways to increase testing and contact tracing as a means to keep infection case numbers low and manageable during the reopening process.
Various businesses and services have been restricted under the current public health order, and each phase of the process will specify those that can reopen.
“All businesses and public venues will be required to continue following good physical distancing and cleanliness practices to protect both their employees as well as their customers, and customers will be expected to follow the physical distancing rules and most importantly to stay home if you feel unwell at all,” he said.
Phase one of the re-opening process will start on May 4. It will allow previously restricted medical services to open again to the public. These services include dentistry, optometry, physical therapy, opticians, podiatry, occupational therapy and chiropractic treatment. Physical distancing measures must be followed and when not possible, the service providers must follow precautionary measures outlined in the plan, such as the wearing of personal protective equipment.
Low-risk outdoor recreation measures will be allowed to resume during phase one, but physical distancing must still be practised and the size restrictions of public and private gatherings will remain at a maximum of 10 people.
Fishing and boat launches can open on May 4, golf courses are allowed to open on May 15, and parks and campgrounds will open on June 1.
“With the weather warming up, people are wanting to spend more time outdoors, and this is a good thing, as long as it’s done safely,” Moe said.
The second phase of the plan will start on May 19, when various retail business and certain personal services business can re-open.
The retail activities that will be allowed are clothing and shoe stores, flower shops, sporting goods and adventure stores, vaping supply shops, boats, ATV and snowmobile dealers, gift, book and stationery stores, jewelry and accessory stores, toy stores, music, electronic and entertainment stores, pawn shops, and travel agencies.
The personal services that can re-open are hairdressers and barbers, register massage therapists, acupuncturists, and acupressurists.
The dates for the re-opening of activities under the next three phases will only be determined after the impact of the initial two phases on infection rates have been monitored.
Phase three will include re-opening of other personal services such as tattoo artists and sun tanning parlours, gyms and fitness facilities, childcare facilities, licensed establishments, and restaurants, which will be limited to 50 per cent of regular capacity. This phase will allow the size of public and private gatherings to increase to a maximum of 15 people.
Phase four will allow the re-opening of indoor and outdoor recreation and entertainment facilities, all seasonal programming, camps, recreational and athletic activities, and the size of public and private gatherings will increase to a maximum of 30 people.
Phase five will be implemented after an evaluation of COVID-19 transmission patterns to determine if any of the longterm public health restrictions and the limits on size of public gatherings can be lifted.
Dr. Shahab said the goal of health authorities during the phased reopening process will be to identify any COVID-19 infections as soon as possible and to limit secondary transmission.
“We will continue to investigate each case in detail and obviously control any transmission through case contact investigation,” he noted. “We’ll also use that experience to further advise settings in which transmission has occurred.”
The goal will be to contain infections, but it will be inevitable that transmission of the COVID-19 virus will still continue to take place during the re-opening process.
“So we will see ongoing transmission,” he said. “We hope that will remain as low as possible. We want to see the curve remain flat during the re-opening phase and we want to learn from that and provide continuous feedback.”
He emphasized the risk of COVID-19 infection has not gone away and Saskatchewan residents need to continue to follow the public health measures and restrictions that will remain in place, including physical distancing, frequent handwashing, working from home whenever possible, limit non-essential interprovincial and international travel, and mandatory self-isolation after international travel and exposure to COVID-19.
“So as we go forward, it’s not really back to business as usual,” he said. “It’s going forward to business in a new normal for the next little while and we will continue to learn from that.” Saskatchewan NDP leader Ryan Meili was cautiously optimistic about the government’s phased plan to re-open the economy.
“We all hope that we come through this with a plan that see our economy open as quickly as possible and as safely as possible, that we manage to find a balance and get those things right,” he said. “This is a plan that seeks to do that, but it’s also a plan that is not without risks and it’s not without some lingering questions about the details. There’s still a lot to be answered in terms of our healthcare capacity should we see an increase in cases, there are questions about the timing of the phases.”
He expressed concern over whether there will be sufficient time to evaluate the impact of phase one on infection rates before the start of phase two, and clear scientific guidelines in that regard was not evident in the plan.
“If we see outbreaks, is it going to be enough to just locally test and trace, or will we actually see steps back in the restrictions, and I think it’s very difficult to predict that,” he said. “The premier spoke with confidence about that, but I’m not sure we do have the capacity at this point. We know we can do more testing and tracing than we could a few weeks ago and that’s great, but are we actually able to do the isolation and quarantine that’s necessary.”
Meili felt the provincial government’s plan lacks measures to assist businesses in trouble and that will not be able to recover very soon. He felt the previously announced support measures for Saskatchewan small businesses are insufficient.
“We still have a situation where this is not going to end real quick, no matter how quickly we go through those phases,” he said. “It’s still a fair amount of time, and we’ve got a lot of businesses, a lot of sectors without the support they need to make it to the point where we’re opening, even if everything stays according to the schedule laid out by Mr. Moe.”
He was also concerned about Premier Moe’s suggestion that Saskatchewan residents can consider the idea of creating extended household groups that can get together on a regular basis. “We are really concerned that people will suddenly start thinking that just because things have been going well here, that we aren’t as susceptible as Alberta or Ontario or Quebec to things getting much worse and that people start going back to business as usual,” Meili said.
He cautioned Saskatchewan residents to continue to follow public health guidelines and practise measures to protect them against COVID-19 infection.
“It would be folly to pretend that this is over and that we’re done,” he said. “What we’re seeing from around the world is you often see countries who dip down, relax restrictions and see a spike. We’ve seen the increase in cases in Alberta in recent weeks. It is not too soon to have these conversations, it is not too soon to start with some opening, but we have to recognize that there are risks involved and we are not past this and no one in healthcare is acting as though this is done.”