Saskatoon councillors give city solicitor green light to draft bylaw restricting social gatherings

Saskatoon city councillors have given the city solicitor the green light to write a bylaw limiting social gatherings in a manner consistent with advice from medical health officers.

The decision was made at Monday's city council meeting. The solicitor is expected to present a draft by this Friday.

"There will be people who won't abide by this and we will have to figure out enforcement, but I do believe that having a framework in place is better than not. We're talking about a 28-day time-limited intervention that hopefully gets things stabilized," Mayor Charlie Clark said during the council meeting.

The city solicitor noted that the bylaw draft will include penalties for those who do not comply, but they won't be as extreme as provincial penalties.

Council also raised a motion calling on the mayor to engage with the Ministry of Health about the proposed bylaw.

"I support these measures and I support continuing engagement with the government including the Ministry of Health to try and get to a better place in our community and and not be the outlier in the entire country when it comes to the impacts of COVID," Clark said.

Last week, councillors voted to ask administration to look into whether or not the City of Saskatoon would be able to make its own rules and set it's own gathering limits, in an attempt to slow down the spread of COVID-19.

In a report, the city solicitor said that decision-making powers on public health measures falls to the provincial government. However, administration would write a bylaw if asked by council.

Three weeks ago, council wrote a letter to the provincial government asking that special gathering limits be brought in for the city.

Among other criteria, the proposed rules included a limit of 15 people at private gatherings, which would include gatherings at home.

However, the provincial government responded, saying it was not considering any gathering limits, essentially killing the idea.

"We have tried to appeal to the province to take that measure and they have not, and so we're stuck to determine, do we act or do we not act," Clark said Monday.

"If we can take a step to try to stabilize the situation, try to bring some confidence and certainty back into our community, try to alleviate the extreme pressure that our health-care system is in, it's worth trying."

The city has already brought in proof of vaccination/negative test rules at all city-run leisure centres and arenas. City Hall and libraries are exempt.

While some councillors voted against the proposal, Mayor Charlie Clark said the city had to do something to combat Saskatoon's high COVID-19 levels.

On Monday, the total known active cases in the Saskatoon region rose to 683.

Jasmine Hasselback, a Saskatoon medical health officer, said that overall testing is down in the city, resulting in fewer cases being reported.

There were 293 COVID-19 patients in hospital across the province, with 71 in intensive care units.

Gathering limits

Administration asked the city's Medical Health Officer what activities should be targeted by the proposed bylaw.

The report said the following gatherings should be targeted if a bylaw is written:

• Unvaccinated and partly vaccinated people should not gather outside their own household.

• Vaccinated groups can gather with one other household, up to a maximum of 10 people.

• Venues for weddings, funerals should be reduced to 25 per cent capacity, with no indoor dining unless they ask for proof of vaccination.

• Places of worship that do not ask for proof of vaccination be limited to 25 per cent capacity.

• No restrictions for gyms, restaurants, bars as they already fall under provincial regulation.

As far as enforcement goes, the report said that provincial health orders are currently under public health inspectors and the provincial government's COVID Enforcement Team.

An enforcement strategy would need to be developed with additional city staff and funding. Any enforcement would be complaint-driven.

The Saskatoon Police Service does not enforce COVID public health orders, but will respond if someone refuses to comply and becomes violent or refuses to leave.