Members of the Moose Jaw Board of Police Commissioners are concerned that police officers will not receive vaccine shots first and want that to change.
Commissioner Mary Lee Booth expressed her worry about police not being prioritized to receive the jab in phase 2 during the board’s Feb. 11 meeting. She wondered if there was some way the commissioners could support changing this issue, especially since paramedics were vaccinated in phase 1.
Through the big city mayors’ caucus and other provincial committees, these concerns have been raised with MLAs to remind them that police have been overlooked, said chairman Mayor Fraser Tolmie.
The Moose Jaw Police Service has done a good job of helping to keep coronavirus cases low in the community, he remarked. However, the provincial government’s goal is to first go after hot spots in Saskatchewan, followed by the most vulnerable and then front-line workers.
Discussions have occurred with the government, and there is news that vaccinations could arrive in this area as early as Feb. 16, Tolmie continued. While there have been some supply-and-demand problems with the vaccines, the mayor remained positive and believed the community would be ready for the rollout.
“I guess I’m just thinking, it’s not just about the Moose Jaw community, I think it’s about police services in general,” said Booth. “I agree that you (the MJPS) should be really be considered in the same vein as emergency services.”
The police board can send letters to the provincial government indicating those concerns, Tolmie replied.
The challenge that police face when enforcing public health orders is that they are usually sent to check on people in quarantine, explained Police Chief Rick Bourassa. Officers have to make close and sustained contact with those residents and don’t necessarily have time to quickly put on personal protective equipment (PPE).
“We police in a very uncontrolled environment … . Without even thinking twice, our front-line officers put themselves at personal risk, which does risk the community as a whole in doing this,” he continued.
The Saskatchewan Association of Chiefs of Police is communicating with the provincial government about this and would appreciate the police board also contributing to the conversation, Bourassa said. Police as a whole in Saskatchewan are not a “special interest group” but are front-line providers who must deal with COVID-19-positive residents.
“We have been fortunate that we haven’t seen more significant occurrences in the province,” he added.
