Town of Battleford Mayor Ames Leslie gives his reaction to Scott Moe's Reopen Saskatchewan Plan (file photo/battlefordsNOW staff)

By Keaton Brown

Take it slow

Battleford Mayor Ames Leslie give his reaction to Reopen Saskatchewan Plan

Apr 23, 2020 | 3:19 PM

Premier Scott Moe unveiled the provincial government’s Re-Open Saskatchewan plan this morning. It is a five-phase plan that will see the slow reopening of businesses and services in the province.

Town of Battleford Mayor Ames Leslie said he was taken aback by how many people in the province were anxiously waiting to hear the announcement this morning.

“It was bizarre. I don’t know if I’ve ever been witness to, since maybe the O.J. Simpson verdict, how many people were waiting to hear what was going to be said,” he said.

Following Scott Moe’s announcement, Leslie gave battlefordsNOW his first impression of the Re-Open Saskatchewan plan.

“I like the five-phase approach. It gives us a little bit of time to see if the curve is truly real and gives us time to see where we truly are as a province,” he said.

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Leslie said that the phased approach lets some people start to enjoy recreational activities like camping, fishing, and golfing in a safe responsible way without having to open everything back up at once.

“You can argue that these types of things are maybe non-essential but they are the easiest to control. You can’t necessarily [protect people if you] open up a Rider’s game. You can’t have 40,000 Saskatchewan fans elbow to elbow and not expect something wrong with that,” he said.

The uncertainty of when the COVID-19 situation would end has caused a lot of anxiety around the province. Leslie said that having a roadmap for Reopening Saskatchewan should help alleviate some of that uncertainty and lower the overall anxiety in the province.

“This day-to-day indefinite shutdown is not healthy for business, it’s not healthy for our economy, and not healthy for our mental health,” he said. “There is a contingent of people out there who have been waiting to hear a timeline. Businesses can start to plan and businesses can start to talk to employees. The unknowns can be contributing more negatively to our mental health than the COVID-19 fear for some people,” he added.

Leslie did caution that just because the province announced that we have flattened the curve and unveiled their plan for reopening does not mean we people can start to abandon the measures that led to our success.

“Keep doing what you are doing, don’t be overconfident that we are out of this. The more disciplined we are the sooner we can bring Saskatchewan back to being what it was.”

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Keaton.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow