COVID-19 weighing heavy on Saskatchewan mayors

When Glenn George first took on the role of mayor in Melfort about a year ago, he didn’t realize how much the pandemic would impact the job.

“I’m working at it twice as hard as I ever thought I’d have to, but over half of it is about COVID,” George said.

The work takes up a lot of his mind most days, sometimes to the point where he’ll forget his wife’s agenda. George said the job is “pretty much consumed with COVID.”

Everything COVID-related goes through City Hall and it’s most of the matters he deals with.

On Thursday, Dr. Saqib Shahab told reporters that micro-strategies are going to be needed in the coming weeks to better target communities and urban areas that have been shown to have low vaccine uptake.

Shahab also commended Melfort, which he said has a 95 per cent vaccination rate.

George meets with other mayors regularly over Zoom to discuss COVID matters they’re facing. It’s a good group, he said, and one where there’s “total support” even though they don’t all agree on how to deal with COVID issues.

“There’s a cross-section for sure. There’s one who’s extremely one way and one who’s extremely the other way and then most of us are in the middle somewhere,” George said.

“Most of us can just be a good corporate citizen and walk that tightrope between the two and try to do what’s best.”

The job is tough, but George said doing it with a good support group and having people he can talk to — both other mayors and his family — make all the difference.

“(I) can’t do it on my own,” he said.