Face masks now mandatory on Saskatoon city buses

As of Tuesday, all users of Saskatoon Transit will be required to wear non-medical face masks.

As well, everyone going to any city-operated facility, including indoor centres will be encouraged to put one on, but it isn’t yet mandated.

At council’s regular meeting on Monday, those recommendations from the governance and priorities committee meeting were unanimously passed.

On Tuesday, the city held a news conference to add some clarity to the new rules.

James McDonald, the director of Saskatoon Transit, says masks will be provided as people get used to the transition, but only for a limited time.

“We are providing masks for the first two weeks for as long as those masks are available,” said McDonald. “That’s a period of time where we would expect people to be able to find masks.”

McDonald says while he hopes people will comply, he acknowledges that not everyone will.

“I know there are people who have medical issues and there are other people who just don’t want to do that and that’s fine, we’ll deal with those people as best we can,” said McDonald.

At Monday’s council meeting, administration was also asked to report back on the benefits, issues, estimated costs, and funding source options to both retrofit existing buses with operator safety barriers and include the barriers when the city buys new vehicles in the future.

Prior to the vote, councillor Hilary Gough asked whether there would be any information or education related to properly using masks. The city’s Emergency Operations Centre’s Anthony Tataryn said that was in the works.

“We do have a comprehensive communication plan that has been developed and is ready to go out. One of the priorities of that plan is the public education piece…we will be talking about the importance of using masks and how to use masks safely as part of that campaign.”

A broader campaign will be directed towards the general public, along with a parallel campaign directed more towards transit users.

The city is also spending close to $20,000 to provide masks for those who don’t have them, until Sept. 15.

Gough also inquired whether the city was prepared to continue to provide masks beyond the first couple of weeks.

“We have not engaged in any conversation as to what we would do with surplus supplies. As far as the budget goes, the masks have already been acquired. It was part of our earlier acquired inventory from supply chain management. So, it’s just an allocation of materials we already have.”

However, council did ultimately vote to keep a limited supply of masks for those who want to ride transit but have forgotten their mask, or who can’t afford one – if there are masks left over after the first couple of weeks, or until the budget is met.

Drivers won’t be expected to enforce the mask mandate, but they will keep tabs on individuals or certain routes where there may be issues with riders not wearing masks.

If there is any verbal or physical escalation that concerns a driver, Saskatoon police may be contacted.

Keeping Council Informed on COVID-19 if Cases Escalate

Coun. Gough also introduced a motion that was questioned, debated and amended which would see administration sharing more detailed information with council or the governance and priorities committee on COVID-19 cases should they begin to escalate in the community.

However, it wouldn’t necessarily trigger a wider city mask mandate. That would be something for council to separately consider when updated information is provided.

According to a report titled “Triggers to Require Usage of Non-Medical Masks by the Public,” three levels are presented. They include “Green- maintain current safety measures,” “Yellow- state of readiness for activating additional safety procedures,” and “Red- activate additional implementation of safety measures.”

All three levels contain detailed information on when additional action may be necessary.

Right now, Saskatoon is in the “green zone.”

“To have a consistent format available to us to report that data and to analyze both the community and corporate impacts  – I see that as value-added,” said Gough.

“It’s much more than an indicator of mask use,” said Mayor Charlie Clark. “What it does is give us a very localized understanding of the health data that we’re getting from the province, and be able to communicate to our community what it’s telling us, and what they can expect.

“It can even serve as a motivator. Let’s stay in the ‘green zone.’ The green zone is very popular in Saskatchewan.”

The motion to receive consistent and detailed information from administration was unanimously passed.