The City of Saskatoon is looking to take a “do it yourself” approach to gathering sizes in the city with the province having rejected the City’s request to impose a cap on gathering sizes earlier this month.

During a governance and priorities meeting Monday morning, councillors and Mayor Charlie Clark heard an update on COVID-19 from city officials including Pamela Goulden-McLeod, the city’s director of emergency planning.

Following the presentation and hearing that Saskatoon is still in the orange or high-risk zone based off the recently approved framework which monitors the COVID situation in Saskatoon, Mayor Charlie Clark pitched a motion to see if the City could change a bylaw that would allow the City to cap restriction sizes.

Clark said he’s prepared to enter the “grey zone” to see what can be done from a municipal standpoint to help slow the spread of the virus during the fourth wave. “This is not the ideal and this may not even be feasible in terms of an enforcement standpoint but given the circumstances, I’d like to fully test this out so that we can at least know if there is a way we can be acting further to mitigate the impacts this (COVID-19) is having on community.”

Councillor Zach Jefferies also chimed in on the topic saying that other cities in the country aren’t having to explore options like Saskatoon is cause they don’t have to based off of their current situations. “I know it was mentioned that we’re not seeing other cities take action and that’s because they don’t have to. We’re in the province right now, in the entire country, that has the worst situation when it relates to COVID and we are the only province in Canada that either has no gathering limit or no guidance on gathering limits.

Jefferies also noted that Newfoundland and Labrador put out recommendations for gathering sizes prior to the Thanksgiving holiday.

Councillors Bev Dubois, Darren Hill, Troy Davies and Randy Donauer shared similar views on the other end of the vote. The four of them voted against the motion saying the province has been in control of public health measures since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and that the City stepping above and beyond the recently approved framework would only confuse residents more.

Ward 3 Councillor David Kirton was among the seven who voted in favour of the motion saying that it’s better to “do something rather than nothing.”