An organization representing northern Saskatchewan municipalities is asking for all levels of government to help find solutions in northern vaccination rates.
New North represents 35 northern municipalities and they are calling for an end to “finger-pointing” on vaccination rates.
The organization released a statement Monday afternoon. The statement is in response to a recent comment by Premier Scott Moe, who seemed to blame the federal government for low vaccination rates in northern and Indigenous communities.
“Our Far North and Indigenous communities are running at a vaccination rate lower than 50 percent, some as low as 23 percent. This is an area where we have some of the highest COVID transmissions in the province and this is an area of exclusive federal jurisdiction,” Moe said.
These comments drew the ire of the FSIN and Canada’s Indigenous Services Minister.
Now New North is speaking out against the comments. New North Deputy Chair and Mayor of La Loche, Georgina Jolibois, says she is concerned by the comment because she feels it carries the implication that low vaccination rates were not a provincial responsibility.
“Many health centres in the north are run by the province and almost everyone relies on them for all medical needs,” Jolibois said. “The comment was also disrespectful, in the sense that he (Moe) seemed not to acknowledge how hard the municipal leadership, along with with the Saskatchewan Health Authority and especially the Medical Health Officers, have been working to overcome the many social and economic barriers to achieving higher rates of vaccination.”
Jolibois says New North has written to the Premier asking the provincial government to work on an incentive program targeted toward northern Saskatchewan. New North’s suggestion was to take an idea similar to one run by the Metis Nation-Saskatchewan where Metis citizens who got immunized against Covid-19 would be entered into a draw for prizes. New North’s idea would be to offer a $300 vaccination incentive to northern residents who get the vaccine.
“We think that the province’s approach to overcoming vaccine hesitancy is blinkered because it doesn’t factor in the socio-economic challenges of northern Saskatchewan,” said Jolibois.
Saskatchewan has seen a significant rise in Covid-19 cases lately with the majority of the new cases among people who are not vaccinated.
(PHOTO: Georgina Jolibois from her time as MP for Desnethe-Missinipi-Churchill River. File Photo)