New Democratic Party Leader Ryan Meili wants to know why Saskatchewan鈥檚 COVID-19 testing has not reached the level of 4,000 tests per day, which was province by the government for September.
In question period on Dec. 9, Meili pointed to Alberta, which in recent days announced a major lockdown. Meili said three weeks ago, the NDP had called for a 鈥渢argeted, short-term circuit breaker, with appropriate support for businesses to get through that difficult time.鈥� He suggested that if Saskatchewan had done so, 鈥淲e could be in a very different position today.鈥�
鈥淒oes he regret not acting sooner, not getting ahead of this, and leaving us, like Alberta, facing the risk of potential more serious shutdowns as we head into Christmas?鈥� Meili asked.
Moe said there have been different approaches taken in British Columbia and Alberta, as well as Manitoba, which had 鈥渆mployed a fairly broad-based circuit breaker shutdown.鈥�
Moe said, 鈥淟et鈥檚 just be clear about what we鈥檙e talking about here, with respect to a circuit breaker. That is a massive shutdown of the Saskatchewan economy. It would cost. Literally tens of thousands of people would not be able to go to work the next day, and for how long? No one knows. We saw Manitoba and theirs (Alberta鈥檚) yesterday. We saw this happen in Victoria, in the state of Victoria, Australia, for between 111 and 114 days. A massive shutdown of their economy, throughout the entire state. People were confined to their homes towards the end of that shutdown for 23 of 24 hours a day, and for that one hour, they were allowed to go out for groceries, they had to stay within five kilometres of their home. If that is what the leader of the opposition is suggesting that we do in Saskatchewan, for the better part of four months? We鈥檙e going to have none of this.鈥�
Meili said over the last three weeks, the number of people in hospitals have doubled, and similarly doubled in intensive care units. 鈥淥utbreaks in long-term care, in hospitals. They鈥檙e having to call in firefighters, and the army may be next,鈥� Meili said, adding 34 people have died in that time.
Meili asked, 鈥淲hat does he regret the most about his failures in this pandemic so far, and what's his plan to get this under control, because this isn鈥檛 working?鈥�
Moe expressed confidence in chief medical health officer Dr. Saqib Shahab and his team, as well as the measures introduced on Nov. 27. He said those measures will be revisited Dec. 17.
鈥淲e are going to revisit those measures that were put in place with an eye to the status quo those measures through likely to the New Year, or to increase, some of those measures through to the New Year. Or the third option, as I said, was potentially to relax a few of those measures to allow families to come together for a few days over Christmas.
鈥淕iven where we are with our numbers and our transmission rate, here in the province, that third option is looking in probable as we move forward, however, we are continuing to work with our Saskatchewan Health Authority, Dr Shahab and his team, to ensure that we now are focusing our intention on deploying our vaccination program across the province so that every dose have that vaccine that we receive in this province, we are going to make it available to Saskatchewan people immediately, and ensure that we are able to cross the finish line with this COVID-19 pandemic that we're all faced.鈥�
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