The Saskatchewan NDP want to see all of the Chief Medical Health Officer’s recommendations to the government to see what advice has been heeded and what hasn’t since the beginning of the pandemic. Health Critic Vicki Mowat says local Medical Health Officers warned through the summer that public health orders were needed to get a handle on the transmission rates of COVID-19 but there was no action from the government.

One example from Chief Medical Health Officer, Dr. Saqib Shahab, is that he publicly recommended before Thanksgiving that private gathering sizes be limited but that recommendation was never made official through a public health order.

Mowat says Dr. Shahab also recommended vaccine mandates and indoor masking nearly three weeks before they were introduced, and over the summer, health organizations like the Saskatchewan Medical Association urged the government to take action to curb the transmission rates before fall.

The provincial opposition wants to see more transparency from the government, with all of Dr. Shahab’s former recommendations made public and any future recommendations as well.

The City of Saskatoon had asked for provincial support to be able to mandate gathering sizes and is continuing to look at that option. Mowat understands why this is happening, with the large number of cases in the provinces and in Saskatoon, but says , it shouldn’t have had to get to this point.

She says municipalities are trying to create rules, because the province hasn’t.