New COVID restrictions: Prince Albert reacts

Masks will be mandatory for all students, employees and visitors in all schools and day cares (except while consuming food or beverage or engaging in aquatic fitness activities). Children ages 0-two years are exempt from wearing masks. Children ages three-12 should wear a mask if they are able to.

Director of education for the Prince Albert Roman Catholic Separate School Division, Lorel Trumier believes they will be able to support the new mandate.

“Our school division had already made the decision that it is in the best interest of our students and staff from pre-kindergarten to grade three to be added to the group of students who are already wearing masks,” Trumier said. “Our children are very resilient, and our families are very supportive.”

In an email, the Saskatchewan Rivers Public School Division (SRPSD) said currently PreK-12 staff and grade 4-12 students are wearing masks, so the new measures will only mean a change for grade PreK to 3 students.

“The new measures will pose some challenges for some,” director of education Robert Bratvold said, in part. “But in SRPSD many early years students have been voluntarily wearing masks and this suggests we can overcome the challenges that young students may experience in adjusting to the wearing of masks.”

Grade 5 and 6 students at West Central Public School pose for a photo with masks on for their ‘Socktober’ clothing drive on Nov. 3. (Submitted photo/Heidi Abbey-Der)

Masks at day care

As per the updated restrictions, young children (ages three to 12) attending schools and day cares will be encouraged to wear a mask if they are able to. Gail Szautner, executive director at Children’s Choice in Prince Albert, told paNOW she is not sure how the children will react.

“My biggest concern is the children leaving the masks laying around in the rooms and another child picking them and putting them on. I mean we certainly have the best supervision that we can but we don’t have one-on-one,” she said.

As of Thursday, there have been no COVID cases at any one of the five Children’s Choice locations in the city. Earlier this month the daycares introduced a number of other precautionary measures to reduce the risk of transmission including the requirement parents wear masks when dropping off their children. A staff member also meets each parent at the entrance door, checks the child’s temperature, before escorting the child to the designated room.

Szautner said she will be in contact with parents and letting them know the daycare will respect their wishes whether or not to have their kid wear a mask.

“It might be a case where some children are wearing a mask and others are not. At this point we will have to let the next days and weeks play out and see how it all goes,” she said.

Retail

Large retail locations are required to limit customer access to 50 per cent capacity or four square metres of space per person, whichever is less.

Prince Albert’s Canadian Tire. (File photo/paNOW Staff)

Canadian Tire’s local owner Malcolm Jenkins told paNOW he supports the new capacity limit, and his store will be fully on board.

“We can do that, we are very flexible,” Jenkins said. “We set up accommodation for folks to wait safely while the other 50 people shop. We track the numbers, and we give people masks. We are totally on board, the safer the better.”

Jenkins added he hopes this will lead to a light at the end of the tunnel and his store will do whatever it takes to help get there.

Eating-in

All restaurants and bars are now limited to seat four people at a single table instead of the maximum of six, and those tables must be three metres apart if not separated by an impermeable barrier.

(File photo/paNOW Staff)

Harry Rai, the owner-operator at Spice Trail in Prince Albert says walk-in trade is very quiet at the moment anyway, but he’s opposed to barriers as they “institutionalize the atmosphere.” He already seats groups of guests more than three metres apart.

“We have to get back to normal soon; we are not seating people on adjacent tables. We are maintaining the distance,” he said.

Rai also got part of his wish he was calling for last week with the government now saying all restaurants and bars must maintain guest/reservation information on all patrons for contact tracing purposes. He said he would be asking all delivery drivers and any visitors to sign in.

“We can’t force it because it hasn’t been said so by the province, but we will try to do what we can whenever possible.”

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panews@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @princealbertnow

by Dawson Thompson, Nigel Maxwell and Glenn Hicks

New COVID restrictions: Prince Albert reacts

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