Moe hopes to keep Re-Open Saskatchewan plan moving along

Even as Phase 2 of the Re-Open Saskatchewan plan was taking effect Tuesday, Premier Scott Moe was talking about Phase 3.

Appearing on Gormley, Moe said the hope is for Phase 3 to start in weeks — not months — as the province further lifts restrictions to limit the potential spread of COVID-19.

The third, fourth and fifth phases didn’t have projected start dates when the plan was unveiled.

“I’m hopeful that maybe we’ll be able to have a look at this in two to four weeks,” Moe said. “The businesses do need some time to prepare, so we need to give them some lead time and we’re hoping to do that in the next week or two.

“However, we do need to also watch our numbers as we open up this fairly large swath of businesses in the retail sector (in Phase 2) and ensure that our numbers aren’t bumping up too much. In saying that, there is going to be an increase from zero.

“Zero was never the goal. The goal is to manage the infection rate of this virus until such time as we have access to a vaccine but to manage that infection rate so that our health-care system can actually provide the health-care services that we need to.”

On Monday, the provincial government announced there weren’t any new COVID-19 cases to report — the first time it could say that since March 15.

With 11 more recoveries reported, the number of active COVID-19 cases in Saskatchewan as of Monday was at 131.

The provincial government allowed some businesses to reopen May 4 in Phase 1. After some large case numbers of COVID-19 were reported in the early stages — primarily in the north and far north regions — Saskatchewan reported single-digit totals of new cases in each of the past eight days.

On Tuesday, more retail businesses and some personal services that previously had been closed due to COVID-19 restrictions were permitted to open their doors.

Moe said the province’s measured approach to reopening was the best route for Saskatchewan.

“We’re going to have these localized, original outbreaks that we are going to have to use our testing capacity to get on and get ahold of very, very quickly,” Moe said. “We saw that in La Loche and things seem to be in a more manageable situation there now. We saw that in a few health-care settings that we were able to move on very quickly.

“That’s the new normal from a health-care perspective is identifying and isolating these outbreaks very, very quickly so that they don’t become a community-wide or province-wide pandemic and we have to go back to the shutdown that we had.”

Moe said he’s confident the province’s cautious approach to reopening has helped — and he believes it will help more as Phase 2 gets going.

The process is a balancing act from a health-care perspective, Moe noted, but the government has to move forward to make sure the economic impact of the virus on the province is as small as possible.

Other topics

Moe said discussions are still underway between house leaders to see when the Legislative Assembly can be recalled and what form it will take.

The premier said it was vital for MLAs to gather so the government can pass its budget, but some sort of modifications will be required for the sittings to happen.

Moe also said comments made about the Keystone XL pipeline by Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden on Monday were “very, very disappointing.”

Biden said he would tear up any presidential approval of the pipeline which, upon its completion, would carry daily about one-fifth of all the oil Canada moves to the United States.

“This is simply a disappointing statement by a fellow who wants to be the president of the United States,” Moe said. “It’s not representing American workers or Canadian workers.”