Health minister believes municipalities should stick to their jurisdictions

It appears the Saskatchewan government wouldn’t allow any municipality to take health orders into its own hands.

On Friday, Saskatoon’s city council voted down a proposed bylaw that would have implemented gathering limits to slow COVID infections, some councillors saying if they passed it, the province would strike it down anyway.

On Monday, Health Minister Paul Merriman said he hadn’t seen the bylaw so he couldn’t say whether he would have signed it or not, but did say that cities and municipalities have their own lane in which to implement bylaws.

“If a city was looking at enhancing something that was within their purview, yeah, absolutely we would look at that. If it’s something that’s in the provincial purview, then that would be something that the province should be looking at,” said Merriman.

“Once you step out of somebody’s jurisdiction, you’re into somebody else’s. It’s no different than us stepping into the federal jurisdiction.”

Merriman said part of it has to do with what the ratepayers are paying for in that jurisdiction. He also said that when a city steps outside its jurisdiction, it just complicates things.

“I guess the question would be ‘How far does that go and where does it end?’ ” asked Merriman.

Weeks ago, Merriman had said if a city wanted to go above and beyond what the province has done, then it can.

When that was brought up by the NDP on Monday as evidence the provincial government was changing its tune, Merriman said he was talking about measures that would affect city-owned facilities only.

The NDP’s critic for municipal affairs, Matt Love, doesn’t buy that explanation. He says those weren’t Merriman’s words and that wasn’t the question he was asked at the time.

Love said the City of Saskatoon came to the province earlier and asked it to implement measures on the city but the provincial government refused, so the city had to do something.

“The City of Saskatoon was forced into this position because the provincial government is unwilling to protect people in Saskatoon,” he said.

Love claimed no one is disputing that is the province’s jurisdiction and job, but said it’s not doing its job.

As for where it would end if cities were allowed to step outside their jurisdiction, Love said he’s not advocating for cities to do whatever they want. What he is advocating for is for medical health officers, like those in Saskatoon, to be listened to so people are kept safe.