Councillor Kyle Sampson brought forward a letter to the Provincial Government during last night’s (Monday) City Council meeting advocating for more leeway on COVID-19 restrictions in Prince George.
Sampson prefaced the discussion by saying that he was in no way a medical expert, but felt that equal opportunities needed to be given across the province.
“We need to be flexible, by no means is this trying to skirt around any health restrictions. By no means am I a doctor, or medical professional, or any sort of health expert.”
“An example that I gave here is if we’re seeing 100% capacities in allowance in Vancouver for example, as long as the crowd is fully vaccinated, then the same opportunities should be provided to businesses, organizations and other non profit group organizations in Prince George,” added Sampson.
“The intent behind this is to urge the province to give fair, equitable safe restart opportunities to Prince George, just like they have given those opportunities to the rest of the province.”
Councillor Brian Skakun said he would like to get more information from Northern Health, and wanted to invite them to come to a future meeting.
“I would like if we could to get Northern Health here, invite them for the January meeting if they can, and I think they could get a spokesperson or two here easy just to explain how they come up with some of these formulas.”
“I know in the northern areas of the province had lower vaccination rates and the province clamped down on us sooner. But I don’t really know, your worship, if we are doing it right in the north with the restrictions, and if they’re doing it wrong in southern BC by opening up big events like NHL and pro sports,” added Skakun.
Councillor Terri McConnachie wanted to note that the potential loosening of restrictions would only apply for those who have been following BC health officials advice.
“This is opportunities for people who are fully vaccinated, so that is the important component to this.”
Councillor Murry Krause advocated for people to get vaccinated, adding that this is how past diseases have been dealt with.
“Polio was eradicated in the western world because of vaccinations, so it’s time we all got vaccinated.”
The letter was drafted before restrictions came out on December 20th, and further restrictions are slated to come out today.
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