Saskatoon city council votes to require masks at civic facilities, on buses

Saskatoon City Hall is pictured in this file photo. (Chad Hills/CTV Saskatoon)

SASKATOON -

City council has voted unanimously in favour of a recommendation to make masks mandatory for city employees and users of indoor civic facilities, including leisure centres, arenas and Saskatoon Transit.

The mask rules will come into effect on Wednesday. The city will provide masks at no cost for a two-week period,

Council also asked administration to develop a testing regimen for all employees with the possibility of adjustments for staff who are fully vaccinated and to report back on how vaccine requirements for employees could be implemented. However, neither of those motions passed unanimously.

Mayor Charlie Clark said that while it’s an individuals choice on whether or not to be vaccinated, there must also be protocols in place to protect city staff and residents.

“I believe choice is something that will always need to be built into the system. But there is also some consequences and conditions to the choice if people decide that they are not going to be vaccinated, that there be other measures be put in place to make sure that our workplaces are safe and our community is as safe as possible.”

Clark also emphasized that the city was not approving a mandate for everyone to vaccinated.

“We're not mandating vaccines today. We are getting a report back on how and what mechanisms that could be put in place that would help to assess and navigate and potentially have specific requirements whether you're vaccinated or unvaccinated. And that’s what's happening everywhere else and I think it's incumbent on us, as this changes rapidly, to get the best information we can including legal advice.”

Dr. Jasmine Hasselback, Saskatoon’s medical health officer, addressed members of Saskatoon city council, sharing some grim details about the' proliferation of COVID-19 in the city after the provincial government lifted all public health measures on July 11.

“We’re nowhere near where we need to be to take a step back and stop worrying,” Hasselback told council during a virtual meeting on Monday.

In her presentation, Hasselback explained the majority of new cases of COVID-19 were traced to the Delta variant of concern. Something the provincial health authority said is more infectious, and easily transmissible.

She added Saskatoon has added 200 new cases of the virus in the past 48 hours and the city’s seven-day test positivity rate for COVID-19 is 10.5 per cent.

“Getting above one per cent is not good, five per cent is certainly something where we need to get worried. Just a week ago it was 8.4 per cent, that means we have a lot of COVID-19 in our community and that’s supported by the wastewater data,” Hasselback said, adding Saskatoon’s test positivity rate was at 15 per cent over the last two days.

According to the medical health officer, 69 per cent of eligible Saskatoon residents have received two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.  But with a rising number of new cases, the city’s hospitals and ICUs are being overwhelmed.

“Hospitals are struggling to say the least,” she said. “Comparing numbers now to our last wave that peaked in January, we are well on our way to competing where we were in wave three in a context of a workforce that is exhausted.”

Council also approved a motion for administration to report back following updates from the province on proof of vaccination tools and the potential for application at civic events and civic facilities.

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