Council Letter to the Premier: COVID-19 Benchmarks/Re-opening

Today, Mayor Clayton sent this letter to the Premier. She received direction to do so at our last Council meeting. I fully support it. And it reflects the thinking of Council as a body.

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Some personal thoughts on it which reflect just my thinking:

We've had 19 people die from COVID-19 in our community. I've talked to Grande Prairie residents who had COVID and are facing ongoing health challenges from it, sometimes months later. I've also talked to many professionals within our local medical system who have re-iterated: there is still risk of our regional hospital capacity being overwhelmed. Until vaccines are widely available, this pandemic is a threat and reasonable actions should be taken.

However: the provincial data about contact tracing, local ICU utilization, and other factors is woefully inadequate to evaluate if actions being taken are reasonable.

And businesses and other organisations shouldn't be shutdown without any indication of what might allow them to re-open.

Over the last couple of weeks, I've focused my [virtual] coffee meetings around talking to owners of businesses that are closed or mostly closed. Most of them are losing tens of thousands of dollars per month, even while accessing government subsidies and maximizing revenue streams available to them (such as offering takeout if they are a restaurant). This is incredibly stressful to these owners, and puts their ability to provide jobs and services for the community at risk. It is also stressful to their employees, many of whom are out of work indefinitely.

I'm not hearing from businesses that they want all COVID precautions to be thrown out. They are members of our community who want their neighbours to be safe. However, they are asking to see the data used to make provincial decisions. To be given public health milestones that would indicate when they might be able to re-open. And if restrictions are going to cause them to run huge deficits indefinitely, to get increased government support.

I think those are reasonable requests that I support. I've been working with Council and businesses to advocate to the provincial government.

At the same time, I'm also avoiding indoor gatherings, washing my hands, wearing a mask, and social distancing. I'm doing my part to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in our community. This isn't just about protecting others in our community, but also about allowing businesses and other organisations to open up as soon as possible.