After hearing from three speakers and a lengthy debate, Saskatoon City Council voted 10-1 in favour of not moving ahead with a bylaw restricting gatherings in the city.

Councillor Hilary Gough was the only vote in favour of proceeding with the bylaw.

Mayor Charlie Clark told councillors at the beginning of the meeting that he was on a conference call with provincial officials earlier this week. During that meeting, the question was asked if the province would back any municipalities that create their bylaws to help mitigate COVID-19 based on the advice of local health officials. Mayor Clark said the answer from the government relations minister was a no.

During the Special City Council meeting Friday afternoon, Councillor Darren Hill said if the city was to move ahead with the bylaw it could have damaged the City’s relationship with the province given that health has been a provincial issue and not one addressed at the municipal level. “This is simply ridiculous that we think this is our responsibility. We don’t belong in the homes of citizens of Saskatoon unless we’re changing lead service lines or providing educational material on how to separate the waste properly.”

Majority of council shared their thoughts saying that healthcare has been the province’s responsibility since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mayor Clark did share his thoughts saying that the provincial government needs to do more to help slow the spread of the virus. “I continue to be disappointed in the decision by our provincial government to not implement some further restrictions.” Council did agree to have the mayor write to the province requesting clarity on what cities and towns can do to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19 along with having city administration report back on options for increased public education based on updates from medical health officials.

The bylaw, if adopted by council would have looked like this: The bylaw would prohibit the unvaccinated and the partially vaccinated from gathering together in a dwelling other than their own. Those who are fully vaccinated would be able to gather with one other fully vaccinated household, including families with children under 12 who aren’t yet eligible for receiving their COVID shots. Events such as weddings and funerals hosted a public venues would be reduced to 25 per cent capacity if there is no proof of vaccination policy. If there is such a policy, the restrictions would not apply.

Mayor Charlie Clark’s Statement following the meeting:

Today (fri) City Council withdrew the proposed bylaw regarding gathering restrictions after receiving direction earlier this week from the Minister of Government Relations that the Government would not support this bylaw.

This provincial direction differed from public comments made previously through the media, by both Premier Moe and the Minister of Health.

On September 8, 2021, Premier Moe said that “Municipalities are more than welcome to look at what is best given their specific situation…” and “We feel quite confident that as we move through the next number of weeks and months that individuals, that organizations such as municipalities, school divisions can continue to rely on public health for advice and then make the decisions that are best suited to their specific area of the province given the COVID rates that may be present, vaccination rates that they may have.”

On October 14, 2021, Minister Merriman also stated in an interview that the Province had created a base layer of COVID-19 restrictions and recommendations and that “If the municipalities want to be able to add on top of that they have that ability to do that.”

City Council’s exploration of this proposed bylaw was based on a very clear request from Medical Health Officers that the City try to do something in the face of the crisis in our health care system.

As Mayor and Council, we have said we will do everything we can to support the health care system and protect lives and livelihoods. This is what we were attempting to explore today and we have reached the limit in what we are permitted to do.

I am disappointed by the Province’s decision not to take action and to limit our ability to take action.

I am concerned about the potential for this to prolong the impacts that we are seeing on the health care needs of all of our citizens, on the capacity of exhausted health care workers, on our ability to get to a more robust economic recovery, and on our reputation as a Province.

While cases may be going down, the modelling and the clear advice from Medical Health Officers is that we risk stretching this crisis out over many more months without more decisive action. It is this situation that we tried to avoid.

And that is why I supported and continue to support a targeted 28 day set of measures that will help stabilize this crisis.

I will continue to engage with the Provincial Government on these issues and on finding coordinated approaches to help get COVID under control, increase vaccination rates, and enable our society to function more normally.