Council votes for more vaccine rules for city facilities

People in Regina will now have to provide proof of vaccination or a negative test in order to attend more city-owned facilities.

That goes into effect starting Nov. 1, and it will impact anyone ages 12 and older.

Major recreation centres, indoor arenas, community centres and the Regina Floral Conservatory are all included in this new policy, regardless if it is a ticketed event or not.

Libraries and the transit information centre are exempt. People entering a city facility to use the washroom, vaccination clinics, heating and cooling stations, food security or other services to meet basic needs are also exempt.

This decision was made after the motion was passed 9-0. Ward 6 Coun. Dan LeBlanc and Ward 10 Coun. Landon Mohl were not in attendance for the meeting.

Mayor Sandra Masters gave some insight into what the new motion entails.

“Really, where this encapsulates the public is in our arenas. Up until this point, we were following the the provincial public health order; we’re just extending proof of vaccination to be required in order to enter any arena facility in the city,” Masters said. “The idea behind this is to ensure we’re creating safe spaces.”

When asked how long this new rule would be in place, Masters says it depends.

“When the stress on our health-care system starts to alleviate, we can re-evaluate it. We all know we’re going to be living with COVID for quite some time, but it’s just a critical point right now,” she said.

“We’re meeting regularly every couple of weeks with the deputy chief medical health officer for our city, so we continue to stay on top of it and look at numbers.”

Masters added that 90 per cent of Regina citizens aged 12 and up have one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while “around 80 per cent” were fully vaccinated.

“Our vaccination numbers continue to rise, which is very encouraging,” she said. “This is something we can do in the short term for the next several months.”