Like many others, the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour is welcoming the introduction of a vaccine passport system and the re-introduction of a mask mandate, but the organization’s president isn’t letting Scott Moe off the hook,

Lori Johb says the announcement was overdue and she hopes it is not too late.

“It’s a good thing that restrictions are finally coming into place and I’m hoping this works, but I have a feeling it may be too late. ” Johb said. “Hopefully in a couple of weeks we will see that these restrictions have done some good.”

While she understands that the government tried to be patient with those who refused to be vaccinated, she says the screws should have been tightened on those people much earlier.

“If those people were sitting on the fence, why would they go out and get vaccinated. ” Johb said. “They could do everything that fully vaccinated people could do like going to bars, football games and not have to wear a mask like everyone else.”

Johb stresses that what was announced does not leave Premier Moe off the hook nor does it absolve him of blame.

She says Moe should be apologizing to frontline workers for ignoring repeated calls from health care professionals and dropping the public health restrictions that led to what we are seeing now as the healthcare system has been overwhelmed with workers pushed to the brink.

While calling for Moe to apologize, she is also once again calling for the resignation of Paul Merriman as Health Minister saying what we have seen over the past few weeks that Merriman is in over his head.