In our year-end interview with Scott Moe CJWW News asked Saskatchewan’s premier if there was a tipping point that would send the province into a full scale lock-down. Premier Moe says restrictions implemented at the end of 2020 are intended to avoid another large scale lock down as we look to the future and a new year that promises wide-spread COVID-19 vaccination,

Premier Scott Moe says they are trying to prevent bulges in traffic that occur in retail situations, pubs, restaurants and worship environments. “There’s a number, in particular in the small business retail market that I don’t know if they survive another lockdown in Saskatchewan. So we’re doing everything we can to protect the livelihoods of people not just in our larger centres but in communities across Saskatchewan.” Premier Moe says that means continuing to manage the general community rate of COVID-19, so that it isn’t getting into schools, health care centres, and care homes in the numbers seen in at the end of November and December.

Scott Moe says the past year is something you could never predict or prepare for but with a vaccination program set to roll out, Saskatchewan’s Premier says he knows 2021 will be better. He says he believes the Saskatchewan Party was given the mandate to govern the province in the recent election because Saskatchewan residents felt his party was best suited to recover the economy in Saskatchewan.

Premier Moe says the response of Saskatchewan people to do what needs to be done to get through the pandemic makes him proud to represent the province.  “With Dr. Shahab providing his very sound advice over the last number of months is one thing but the second thing is how the people of this province have responded to that advice. And they have done very well, yes there are a few skeptics from time to time but the vast majority of Saskatchewan people have used what I call good old-fashioned common sense.”

The Premier says the restrictions are designed to keep broad swaths of Saskatchewan’s economy open.