Saskatchewan's doing the right thing with COVID

The thing about being a border city is who's mandates are followed. While I disagree with the SK government about solar power adoption and now, their EV annual surcharge* they have figured out a COVID strategy most people can live with. While health orders have been renewed there have been no further restrictions since Regina was determined to be a hotspot earlier this year. 

Publicizing a reopening plan is a good move at this point. Basing it on vaccination  (not the infection rate, hospitalization rate or booster administration rate) is an effective strategy - although it seems strange to publish at a time when many provinces are locking down. The province has control over vaccine administration. There is a central online booking site but more importantly there are many "walk in/drive thru" sites open to skirt, or accommodate the 3 hours paid, work hours. Have heard no complains and doesn't seem difficult to scale up but 🤷‍♀️  

The government also set a pretty low bar. On the day this roadmap was published there was  65% vaccination compliance so getting to 70 wasn't going to be a difficult task, and that threshold has been met. This is also a reward for those of us who did follow the mandates to keep other's safe.  I can't see Fed's opening borders until the Provincial Health Services set a S.M.A.R.T. metric...the bane of every red tape cutting governments🙄  I can only think there's so much compliance because the Premier was recently re-elected so there's confidence in his leadership.

Our lives won't change much but other people's will as there are more in person socializing opportunities...and isn't that what many of us have been missing?

*I have no problem with the idea of a surcharge for road maintenance BUT I think it should be applied to all registered vehicles, not just EVs, as a fuel tax replacement. Alternatively it could be added as a fuel tax to the owner's electric bill  but that seems clunky. I even understand the solar power thing as SK has supply chain control as SK energy is a crown corp. rather than a publicly traded utility.