The City of Grande Prairie is pressing the province for any more information on potential relaunch efforts, as it’s believed frustration in the local business community is starting to boil over. Mayor Jackie Clayton penned the letter to Premier Jason Kenney on Friday, suggesting that, while the city remains a willing partner in establishing a safe relaunch strategy, they can’t move forward with anything until decisions are made by the government.
“The province works very closely with Alberta Health Services and has access to more information than the municipalities have, therefore we would like them to be able to take that information and make some milestones, establish some parameters,” she explains.
Clayton says business owners and residents alike have a great need for a better idea of what it will take for restaurants to reopen for dine-in service or for people to get back to indoor recreation. She adds the ever-present curiosity surrounding the reopening doesn’t help either.
“Three weeks ago when the premier established the new regulations, people had, in their mind because it was identified that it would be approximately two weeks. Two weeks came and went, three weeks has come and gone, and now it’s simply time to give people some information.”
She adds they’re not asking for a firm reopening date, or a concrete timeline of events, just something tangible which can help people better understand why the decisions are being made in the first place. The letter was also sent to Minister of Health Tyler Shandro and Grande Prairie—Wapiti MLA and Minister of Finance Travis Toews.