SASKATOON -- Saskatoon mayor Charlie Clark says he supports the province’s approach to restarting Saskatchewan’s economy during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s slow and staged and methodical,” said Clark, who added that success of the plan will depend on the cooperation and participation of the people of Saskatchewan.
“Our success at keeping the virus at bay under these new rules will depend on everybody’s cooperation,” he said. “It won’t depend on the Premier, it will depend on the community.”
The province released the plan on Thursday. It sets out five phases for gradually allowing businesses and services to open.
Clark recommends continuing to practice physical distancing and limiting social circles.
How people interpret and manage the province’s guidelines could be a challenge, he said.
“We don’t want to get into a police state, where you’re trying to figure out how to track exactly what everybody’s doing, but it wouldn’t take much,” he said.
“When this spreads it can mean people die, this is still very serious in our community. And so figuring out how to strike that balance between enforcement and education and monitoring I think is going to be really, really important.”
Clark says the re-opening of certain sets of businesses will provide some relief and allow the economy to open up, but warns that it doesn’t take much for some businesses to undermine the success of the province’s plan.
“As much as we want to see the economy opened up and we want to get people back to work, if people don’t cooperate or the virus does spread and we see a bunch of people get COVID-19 and more people die, it’s probably going to set us back further than where we are today.”
Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce Board chair Chris Sicotte believes the government’s plan is a responsible one that will provide a comprehensive way to restart the economy.
“Most businesses in Saskatoon, if they’re not anticipating this they are probably going to be in the process now of planning for those re-openings,” he said. “Looking at getting themselves prepared and ready for when they can open doors.”
