CUPE believes the provincial government are now paying for their mistake of lifting restrictions in July.

On Thursday, the Saskatchewan government announced they were reintroducing a masking policy and introducing a vaccine passport program in October.

President Judy Henley feels the province provided a sense of false security when they lifted the restrictions in the summer. She noted that by opening everything, the Saskatchewan government provided no reason for many people to get the vaccine as it created a false sense to the residents of Saskatchewan that everything was going back to normal.

Another issue for Henley was the lack of availability of vaccine shots throughout the province. She said booking an appointment was very difficult. Henley said even though she lives in Melville, she was forced to get a vaccine shot in Regina because of the lack of availability in rural Saskatchewan.

The President of CUPE believed the provincial government displayed a lack of leadership when lifting the restrictions in July and now with them being the last province to introduce a vaccine passport program. “As government you’re supposed to lead, you’re supposed to make decisions, you’re supposed to be there for all the people of this province and to be the last province to do something, to me is not leadership, it’s just following somebody else which you shouldn’t be doing.”

Henley noted that the provincial government should have provided a provincial wide plan for schools this year instead of delegating the duties to the separate school divisions in the province.

When it comes to the concern of safety, the Saskatchewan government failed on that front according to Henley. “It just shows that we’re not catering to everybody in this province, we’re worried about an economy, if we close down again, who does that hurt? If you cater properly, you can take of everybody.”