Saskatoon city council divided over COVID-19 gathering limit bylaw

A proposed bylaw designed to limit social gatherings in Saskatoon has councillors divided on the role the city should be playing during the pandemic.

On Friday, councillors will be presented with a draft bylaw that would look at targeting gatherings of people who might spread COVID-19.

The bylaw will be written based on the advice of medical health officers, who advised the city that COVID-19 seemed to be spreading in the city primarily through social interaction.

The new bylaw will focus on targeting groups of unvaccinated or partly vaccinated people gathering at homes, events like weddings and funerals, and places of worship.

Mayor Charlie Clark said the measure would only be in place for 28 days. A report said the city would need to hire additional staff to enforce the bylaw, which would be complaint driven.

Ward 6 Coun. Cynthia Block voted in favour of writing the bylaw. She said council is only moving forward with the bylaw because an earlier request to the province to bring in city-specific guidelines was denied.

"I'm not happy that we are in this position," said Block.

"[But] after listening to what the medical health officers are telling us, I don't know that we really have a choice." 

For months, Saskatoon has led the province as the province's COVID-19 hot spot. As of Wednesday, Saskatoon had 606 of the 2,440 active cases in Saskatchewan, according to the province's online dashboard. There were 54 new cases reported in Saskatoon Wednesday.

Concerns from councillors

While a majority of council voted in favour of writing the bylaw, some councillors are concerned the new law would take the city beyond its normal range of powers.

"We don't have the expertise on council or in our administration to make these decisions," said Ward 1 Coun. Darren Hill. 

"That's why we have deferred to the medical experts."

Hill noted that the city solicitor had told council that public health orders are a responsibility for the provincial government, not municipalities.

As a result, he's concerned that the province will strike down any bylaw that deals with social gathering, or that a private citizen could challenge the bylaw in court.

"I think this is just an exercise in futility and a tremendous waste of precious resources right now," said Hill. 

"We have said the province is the leader on this and we need to stand by that."

Ward 5 Coun. Randy Donauer also voted against the bylaw. He noted that last year, the City of Regina tried to enact its own COVID-19 restrictions and was denied by the province.

"I can't imagine that they're going to treat the City of Saskatoon any differently," he said. 

"I think the province is quite clear this is their jurisdiction, and they'll make the decisions."

However, Coun. Block notes that medical health officers across the province have been asking for more restrictions to help ease overcrowded hospitals and that someone needs to act to bring in more restrictions.

"I'm very hopeful that the province will receive the information in the same way and the spirit in which it was taken from council's point of view," she said.

"And that's … how can we best keep our communities safe? How can we attenuate the virus as quickly as possible so that we can put all restrictions behind us?"

A draft version of the bylaw will be presented to councillors on Friday.