Premier Scott Moe says he expects to make more announcements regarding all remaining phase 4 business and facility re-openings early next week.
This will include casinos, bingo halls and indoor sports facilities like pools and rinks.
Moe says with case numbers throughout most of Saskatchewan considered low, he would like to remove more restrictions, but that is just not realistic, as the risk of COVID-19 has not disappeared. He explains the province knows how quickly the virus could spread, if we stop following all of the good safety practices so far. Moe points to what is happening south of the border, with cases spiking to record highs recently in Florida, Arizona and Texas. Moe says Saskatchewan has been so very successful so far due to the smart, practical, common sense actions of the people of province. He suggests this is how we will continue to keep case numbers low, avoid the spread seen in the USA, keep businesses open and life in Saskatchewan as close to normal as possible, in the weeks and months ahead.
The International Border
Premier Scott Moe says safety parameters of international travel need to be discussed before Canada re-opens its border to the USA.
The deal with Canada-USA border is due to expire in July, Moe was asked his stance on international travel at Thursday’s COVID-19 conference. Moe says from discussion with first ministers, he would suspect Canada isn’t ready to move in the short term to additional international travel other than what’s already occurring. The Premier says we have an opportunity to not worry so much about when that will happen but have a conversation on what safe parameters of international travel will be, when it does. He suggests this may include having a negative test completed before traveling or having a test when coming back into the country and self-isolating until those test results are available.
Moe adds that before Canada can get serious about re-opening international borders, inter-provincial travel needs to first open up again, which isn’t currently the case in portions of country.
