Deschambault Lake Resort. (Jason Hogan/Facebook)

By Alison Sandstrom

Public health order

Travel restrictions eased across North

May 19, 2020 | 5:26 PM

Non-essential travel to and from north central and northeast Saskatchewan is now permitted ending frustrations that were being vented by property owners and businesses.

Premier Scott Moe announced Tuesday the government was amending the public health order restricting travel to the Northern Saskatchewan Administration District to only apply to the northwest region.

“The situation in and around the community of La Loche continues to improve, there are still 107 active cases in the Far North and virtually all of those cases are in the northwest portion of our province,” he said. Moe added the decision to ease some restrictions came after consultations with community leaders.

Meanwhile medical health officer Dr. Saqib Shahab said if current numbers in the northwest hold, they could look at lifting the travel ban to and from the area in two to three weeks’ time.

“Generally for outbreaks we do like to see case numbers extremely low, they may not be zero but extremely low for at least two weeks,” he said. “And secondly, even if the case numbers are low, if most of them are linked to a known case then those two factors demonstrate that there’s no ongoing widespread community transmission… and that’s what we’ve seen with the effort communities in the northwest have put in.”

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Shahab said travel restrictions are one thing, along with physical distancing and self-isolation, that can be used to slow the spread of COVID-19.

He said travel restrictions could be issued for other parts of the province if there are further outbreaks.

“We have to recognize that these kinds of steps may be required anywhere in the province if we see a cluster or an outbreak,” Shahab said.

Northwest restrictions

The municipalities that remain under the current public health order that restricts non-essential travel are: Bear Creek, Beauval, Birch Narrows, Dene Nation, Black Point, Buffalo Narrows, Buffalo River, Dene Nation, Canoe Lake First Nation, Clearwater River Dene Nation, Cole Bay, Descharme Lake, Dillon, Dore Lake, English River First Nation, Garson Lake, Green Lake, Ile a la Crosse, Jan’s Bay, Lac La Plonge, La Loche, Little Amyot Lake, Michel Village, Patuanak, St. George’s Hill, Sled Lake, and Turnor Lake.

The health order has also been amended to include clarity for northwestern community leaders, residents and checkpoint staff to allow locals to obtain essential goods and services while travelling for medical reasons.

Business reaction

Meanwhile business owners in the north central and northeast were delighted to hear about the changes after much frustration was aired last week, with questions being asked why they should be affected when they were so far from the outbreak in La Loche in the northwest.

“It’s a big relief. Thankfully they’ve come to their senses and maybe listened to all the complaints they were getting,” Morgan Walk, the co-owner of Deschambault Lake Resort, told paNOW. He said he’d lost a lot of business in recent weeks.

“I had lots of cancellations because of the uncertainty and was getting lots of phone calls from people who were also wondering why this [travel ban] was going on.”

Dean Foster owns Buddha’s Bait Shop on the highway heading to the North and said he was very happy to hear the end to the travel ban across the central and northeast parts.

“We can now go to our properties up north and social distance there,” he said. “It’ll help my business immensely now because fisherman will [once again] be going fishing and coming through the area.”

With files from Glenn Hicks

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panews@jpbg.ca

On Twitter:@princealbertnow