A leading Saskatchewan lawyer is questioning the legality of the government’s lockdown of the Northern Saskatchewan Administration District (NSAD) to help combat the spread of COVID-19.
As the weather warms, there are growing complaints from cottagers, campers and business owners in central and northeast parts of the region who want access to their sites. They argue it’s unfair to stop them from going there when the current outbreak is around La Loche, seven hours to the northwest.
However, the provincial government says travel restrictions will remain in place to limit the spread of the virus, although the premier has alluded to a phased relaxation in the weeks ahead.
Legal questions
“It will be very difficult to justify legally the idea that you can hold an area separate in a province,” Tony Merchant, the principal at Merchant Law Group told paNOW when asked if owners could pursue legal action. “It’s different for a First Nation; they have rights and can say ‘We want to keep people off our property,’ but that’s quite different from saying ‘We’re going block highways, roads, or make some area a private area.’”
Merchant noted a government might be able to declare Martial Law and create legal justification but that hasn’t happened in Canada. As for the possibility of a class action law suit he said the total economic loss of the claimants would have to be considered as such action can be very costly.
As we head toward the holiday weekend it’s not only those who live close to the NSAD boundary line north of Prince Albert who think the current lockdown is unfair, with people who spend their summers at an abundance of locations along Highway 106 also feeling frustrated by what they see as a far northwest health issue that doesn’t affect them.
“Allow us access to our place. I don’t care if it’s escorted… give us the same rights as the people coming South,” Sheldon Spearman from Canora told paNOW. He has a seasonal site at Deschambault Lake and said it’s unfair that people who live full-time in the northwest can leave their community for essentials, but people who holiday in the region can’t get any access.
“The government needs to ease the restrictions so we can go to our place and we will follow the same restrictions everybody else does,” Spearman said.
Business losses
For Morgan Wark, a co-owner and operator of Deschambault Lake Resort, the rationale behind the government-imposed lockdown doesn’t seem to be having the intended effect.
“There’s steady traffic driving past here, so if [the government] is worried about any infection going to the communities up here, there are people from these communities travelling back and forth non-stop,” he said. “So, I don’t see how fishermen can’t come to remote areas and practice social distancing like they do at home.”
Wark said he’s already lost out on business from the ice fishing season in March and is concerned that will happen again for the spring fishing season in June.
“We’re not interfering with anybody else, we don’t see anybody else …to me people coming from the North to a grocery store in Prince Albert, would be a higher risk,” Leonard Robb from White Fox said. He has owned a cottage at Lower Fisher Lake for over 30 years.
He agrees everyone in Saskatchewan has to do their part to help stop the spread of COVID-19 but said the lockdown across the NSAD takes things “to a whole new level.”
“We’ve been staying at home, self-isolating… you have the stress of running a business, you have the stress of everything… it would just be nice to go and sit and not be around all this [stress],” he said.
Many property owners said they want answers from government and a timeline for when they can expect to be able to gain access to their summer getaways.
Government’s continuing travel restrictions
In a statement forwarded to paNOW on Tuesday by the office of MLA Nadine Wilson, the government said it was aware of concerns regarding the travel restrictions imposed on travel to, from and within the Northern Saskatchewan Administration District (NSAD) upon consultation with Northern leaders.
“We recognize that these travel restrictions represent a substantial disruption to the lives of residents in the North or others that are seeking to access property. However, these restrictions were imposed to restrict the spread of COVID-19 stemming from the outbreak in Northwest Saskatchewan by restricting travel with limited exceptions, and are being upheld to fulfill that purpose,” the statement reads.
“The Government of Saskatchewan will continue to work with Indigenous and community leaders throughout the North to address concerns that are raised, while ensuring that travel restrictions are upheld to limit the spread of COVID-19.”
On Monday Saskatchewan’s Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. Saqib Shahab suggested a relaxation in the lockdown across the NSAD may come in the summer.
Possible phased relaxation
Premier Scott Moe was asked by CKOM Wednesday morning if he was considering re-opening certain areas where the virus has been quiet.
“Yes, but not before this weekend,” he said, noting the reopening of the North will happen in phases, but he could not say when.
“We’re working our way through, ensuring we can isolate this virus, and the virus quite frankly moves when people move in and about their community and when people move between communities,” he said.
Speaking later during the daily media briefing Moe suggested restrictions could be relaxed.
“We are getting this into a manageable situation, so in the days ahead …if these numbers hold, we’ll have a discussion with northern leaders as well as with others if we can focus our restrictions on where they need to be,” he said.
Protest planned
Meanwhile, one business owner in White Fox said people have had enough already and he has plans for a peaceful protest at the 30-kilometre mark along Highway 106 north of Smeaton where the roadblock is located.
“My idea is to have everybody stay in their own vehicles,” Dean Foster, the owner of Buddha’s Bait Shop told paNOW. “That way everybody is safe and social distancing is in effect.”
He said over 200 people had responded to his Facebook call for a protest.
“Hopefully we can have a couple of hundred boats and campers all lined up. That way we’re just going to overwhelm them,” he said.
He couldn’t say when the protest will happen.
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glenn.hicks@jpbg.ca
On Twitter:@princealbertnow
