By Canadian Press

Northern Saskatchewan leaders want COVID checkpoint confusion sorted out

May 11, 2020 | 11:01 AM

REGINA — Leaders in northwestern Saskatchewan are asking the province to clear up confusion about checkpoints that are restricting travel in the region during the COVID-19 pandemic.  

Premier Scott Moe announced last month that non-essential movement into the area and between its communities would be limited to help contain the novel coronavirus.

The virus was brought in via travel from an oilsands work camp in northern Alberta.

A letter from northern leaders to the province’s chief medical health officer outlines their concerns over a lack of consultation about the travel restrictions and confusion over how to interpret them.

It says there are no Indigenous language speakers at the checkpoints and staff are not honouring notes from chiefs and councils that authorize certain people to travel.

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The letter, posted online, says the province hasn’t addressed food security or how the lockdown means people can’t make a trip south for groceries.

Leaders say what’s missing is a discussion about how the public health order on travel is being carried out.

“We can understand the temptation to blame us for complex issues in the northwest,” reads the letter.

“Many people in the province are expressing this attitude, and this is not only deeply painful to us, but also dangerously divisive to the social fabric of our province.” 

Of Saskatchewan’s 564 reported COVID-19 cases, 193 of them are in the far north.

A community-run Facebook page says the Dene village of La Loche, 600 kilometres northwest of Saskatoon, is where most of the cases are concentrated and had a total of 143 infections as of the weekend.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 11, 2020 

The Canadian Press