Shaun Newman Podcast - #65 - Mayor Gerald Aalbers

Episode Date: March 26, 2020

I was joined today by Lloydminster Mayor Gerald Aalbers. Really appreciate him hopping on to discuss the current situation and what we can expect to see in Lloydminster. We discussed: - COVID-19 confirmed cases - Lloydminster declaring local state of emergency - Closing of city park playgrounds & outdoor rinks - Social distancing vs self quarantine - City's plan moving forward

Welcome to the podcast, folks. Today is a special edition of the Sean Newman podcast. I sat down with Mayor Jared Elbers of Lloyd Minster. I just wanted to get, you know, from my own brain, and I think for a lot of us here in the community, we see a provincial and a federal mandate of what's being pushed down and what they're saying. And I just wanted to know from a local standpoint

if there's other things we should know about. being the border city, you know, we got two different governments that the city deals with. So I wasn't sure exactly on some things that way. So I was looking for some clarity. I hope this does it for a lot of people. I'm sure there's still some questions after you listen to it. But I hope this helps. So without further ado.

Welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. It's a special edition today. I have Mayor Gerald Albers on with me. So first off, thanks for joining me. Thank you, Sean. Thank you for the invitation and reaching out. I'm really looking forward to this because I know people have been asking questions and there have been a lot of information.

I hope to clarify any information and provide if I have any more information at, I'll certainly share. Yeah, well, and I think clarification is a beautiful word because I think right now, you know, the conversations are going on in every household, office, phone, everything, social media is so distracting. And I was going to start, I think, with the governments and your thought, first off, on how they've handled it so far. And if you wanted to share some thoughts from that standpoint. Well, basically, there's three players that I'll talk about. One is ourselves as the city. Second, the provinces, because we deal with two provinces and that uniqueness of our city.

And third, the federal government. And again, I'm going to be as straightforward and honest as I can be. So I think the city, we've tried very hard. and the team has worked very hard through city administration to provide information to people. We've been trying to make decisions with all the information to ensure that we can make a very good decision and not have to back up and say, well, we did the wrong decision because we didn't look at all the information. So people are asking us about taxes and utility bills. We're working on it right now.

You'll be hearing from the city as soon as we can. We're gathering information from other municipalities, getting information what the provinces are asking of us and different organizations. We're taking that all in and we want to make sure we make the right step forward when we take that step. So I think that from the city's perspective, we're trying to be as transparent as we always have been. And I think that that's very, very important for people to realize. We did have to let some people go yesterday. A city manager made that decision because that's in his realm. So we've had some casual and temporary people no longer working for the city.

So we're feeling that as well because those are our fellow employees from the perspective of You know, we try to, we're a big, we're one team here at the city, so it's felt. From a provincial perspective, I think that it's unique because we have two provinces. They introduce states of emergency, and I'll touch on that just a little bit. When each province, starting with Alberta, declared their state of emergency, people said, well, is that apply in Lloydminster? We went back to the Lloydminster Legislative Charter Act, and they said no, because of, they introduced it through their EM, sorry, their Department of Health, through public health in Alberta. Then the next day, Saskatchewan introduced it,

and they introduced it through emergency measures or through emergency management. And that doesn't apply to the city because we follow the other problems. So we were left in a void. So that's why we created the state of local emergency to ensure that we had uniformly across the city because we want to make sure every individual, resident and business was treated the same.

And we moved that accordingly. So we've updated it a couple times. If the rules have changed, we have adjusted it accordingly. So from that perspective, the provinces are managing the issues that they need to manage. Health is a provincial matter, and we'll be talking about that, I'm sure, a little bit later. But from the perspective, health services are provided through the province, and we have nothing that the city is directly related to or inquiring,

just like the residents and businesses are, but the city does not have anything to do with health directly. So the provinces have also been laying out the guidelines from a perspective can we overrule the province? In essence, no. The province, their state of emergency rules are the rules the city is following. And because Saskatchewan has the more stricter, that's what's being placed today. So as an example, you can't gather a group of more than 10 people. That is the official legislation from the province of Saskatchewan, and that's what we're following. So federally, there's then moves into a whole different realm. And we've all been watching the news and hearing different things. that's where you're going to see the programs that you see about employment and assistance for business

and things like that come from the federal treasury because the city treasury doesn't have that ability nor do the provinces directly it falls mainly to the feds working with the provinces because of their level of taxation and sources of income so I think that everybody's been pulling together as best as they could it's challenging I can't admit I know how hard it's been just managing the city so try and multiply that across the country that affects from Cornerbrook, Muffinland to Victoria, British Columbia, it's huge. And, you know, I don't always agree with the federal government, but this is one, they're doing their thing, and I hope that they continue to put people first and bring those policies forward on a daily basis.

I'm curious, the state of emergency then, the first time I heard that, you guys announced it on March 21st. As soon as I heard emergency, I know what my, brain did. I'm sure lots of people who don't fully understand what that exactly means. Maybe you could just go back over that one more time. I know when you hear state of emergency, you think bad. Absolutely. And I'll tell you, if you want to ask me, one of the toughest jobs I've had as mayor was signing that document because that imposed restrictions on people. And I know it's not easy from my perspective and it's one of the jobs that fall to me and from the perspective the intention is is to get people's attention I guess let's be honest that's what it needs to do

it needs to get people's attention and we've heard all sorts of things in the news but oh that doesn't affect us because we're removed once that state of local emergency came into effect it should have made people say hmm there's something going on here we need to sit down and listen or take notice and the intention was was not to cause panic and I know this is awfully hard to explain but if we didn't put this in place people didn't know where they fit and we had businesses calling myself and the city saying are we to be open are we to be closed what is what works where and to make it general and across the board the state of local emergency was the tool we had to work with it's in how it's an

for seven days and very likely will be renewed every seven days until we're through this, but it's nothing that comes into play. It can often happen that it might just be a local state of emergency in a neighborhood, say two or three blocks if a gas main was ruptured while construction was going on on the roadway. We would have to literally evacuate people, and the easiest way to do that is through a local state of emergency, and it affects blocks one, two, and three in a certain area, things like that. And we've never had to do that. thank goodness, but this got to a point that we had to do something to ensure the consistency, like I say, across the city so that everybody was treated and playing in the same sandbox

equally because businesses on one side of the border or the other fell into different rules, and this way we brought it fair across this city as we always have. Yeah, you've got a unique city in the fact that half of us are Saskatchewan, half of us are Alberta. the border cities always had that unique challenge. But if I heard that correctly then, if we hear on the 28th then that it's been renewed or local state of emergency still implies. Nothing, it's not meaning it's escalated or anything.

It just means it's been signed for another seven days and we should see that progress as time goes on that it might get renewed over, you know, the course of this thing. Absolutely. So you have seen updates come out that, as the province has changed the rules, we've had to update it. But other than that, if nothing changes for the next seven days, those are the rules that we have in play. But this is a very fluid situation.

You can hear me use that term lots. I'm on a conference call daily, sometimes with the same group twice a week again throughout the week. So we're trying to stay abreast of the information and the rules as they change. I know a lot of people in town are wondering, we have a lot of people. a testing facility in town where people are wondering how many people are actually being tested. And then if we have any confirmed cases, because I know that's like hot topic number one. And if you go anywhere on social media, which I try and stay away from, people are screaming to high heaven.

They have it or they don't have it or people they know have it. I'm not sure in your position. You know the exact answer, but maybe you could share a little bit with us if you do. Okay. I'll share what I can and what I know. So let's, I may not hear to say what I know and what I can in that order to do. I really don't know. I know I've been told there is a testing location.

I do not know how many people are being tested a day and how long the results take because I haven't been there. So I'm at the loss to give you any more further information. On the second one, the question has been raised. It's been raised numerous times. And again, I've heard about it from people about social media saying, help. We know. They may know, but I can honestly say I don't know, and it's been made very clear to us by SHA, the government of Saskatchewan, that they are not releasing that information on a

detailed summary. So I'd like to just share with you just a couple things, because I figured this would come up, and I appreciate the question. Yesterday, the Saskatchewan provincial chief medical officer was aware of these concerns, and Dr. Shihab offered some very straightforward advice that I'd like to share. You have to act as if anywhere in Saskatchewan, as if there's an unknown community transmission. That's not a reason to panic. It's a reason to be very thoughtful about your day-to-day activities. And I want to add, I can add this applies to both sides of the city. So what he's saying is we should be treating the city like there is a case. You should be following the rules that have been set out. We need social distancing. If we're going to hit this thing

on the head like a hammer and put it down and keep that like a plank, we have to follow the rules. And I'll go even further. Another gentleman, Dr. Gordon Barnard, who's the president of the municipalities of Saskatchewan, shared, there could be someone in our community that has no signs or symptoms that does have the virus and could be spreading it. So if you don't take the steps, you could be the one that might lead to grandma and grandpa being passing away or someone you know and you love and you care about. So that's how serious this is.

And I don't think people have taken the reality because, well, nobody's died in town yet. I don't hope we go through that, that we don't have a death. That would be the worst case scenario. If there are people that have it, please reach out to 8-1-1. Get a hold of the health authority. That's the responsibility they have, and we all have. If you don't have it, please wash your hands. Maintain social distancing.

Don't gather in a group of more than 10 and preferably less than not. stay out of the playgrounds. There's just so many things we can do to prevent it. I haven't, I've heard about it. I've followed it on the news. This isn't your regular flu. You're going to get awful sick. Some people don't, which is fine.

But if you've got any other health condition, this is the one that might be the one that's not so good for you. And I'd hate to see somebody have to go back and say, boy, I wish I wouldn't have visited Grandma or Grandpa, and I'm responsible for them passing. So I leave it with you with that. And I encourage people to just think about this. This is, we talk about not drinking and driving.

We talk about not driving without a seatbelt. This is the same thing. This is just, you can preserve life by following the rules. I can't say much more than that. You've brought up the 10 people together. I had read 25 and 50. Could you elaborate a little more on the 10 people? Certainly.

As of yesterday, the government of Saskatchewan. laid out that no gathering could be larger than 10 people. I can tell you there was pressures on the government of Saskatchewan to make it even less than not. They went from, I believe they were at 25 down to 10 and Alberta is still at 50 but I would encourage it for less than 10, a gathering of less than 10 and really there's no reason to gather for in a group. There really isn't unless you're a family from that perspective and again I would say You've got to be very careful because it's trying to prevent the potential spread because at six foot intervals, a group of 10, you need a pretty big circle to get everybody in that circle. So I encourage young people, older people, not to gather unless it's an absolute necessity in basically an emergency because you're just giving that opportunity for the virus to spread.

And you may be a carrier. You may have never experienced a symptom. But if you're a carrier, you're a spreader. And we want to try and stop that. And no one knows who is. That's what's kind of the crazy thing about this. It kind of jumps up and all of a sudden it's here. I just read about a scadu rally in northern Saskatchewan.

And somebody at a buffet touched the fort. Everybody used the same spoon. And guess what? Now there's two people sick and the list is just going to grow. We had an example. Doctors gathered two weeks ago in Edmonton. 60 doctors, I believe it wasn't, 30 of them are now sick because they had a buffet and touched the same spoon. So it's that simple.

It can be transferred by a spoon. Yeah, and the spoon you're talking about happening at Christopher Lake, the snowmobile rally. Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah. You mentioned Saskatchew a lot, and I found myself listening to Dr. Hinshaw and Premier Kenny at Alberta. Are our, for Lloyd specifically then, if we did have a case test positive, it would be on Saskatchewan's radar then? It would depend, I understand, on where your residence is. So if you are an Alberta resident, it would show up on the Alberta Health Services website.

And this is where it gets confusing. I was on belief that it was all, we were, we were all being reported as SHA, what I've been informed as. If you're an Alberta resident, you would show up, even though you got tested in Saskatchewan, or you were at the hospital and got tested wherever that happened, you would show up as an Alberta health services number or statistic, being an Alberta resident, Saskatchewan Health Authority has only got the Saskatchewan side. So it is a little confusing. This is, like I say, a lot of things have come to light, and it is just the way our city operates. Saskatchewan Health Authority provides the healthcare services,

but at the end of the day, the numbers are reported to Alberta Health Services or Saskatchewan Health Authority. Well, my hat's off to you because that is a problem most cities don't have to worry about having to split the hairs of two different governments. No, you know, I used to joke that it was a lot of fun, but this is starting to wear a little thin these days on this. If I assume the city then has a plan in place if things are to progress and if an outbreak were to occur and community spread, so to speak, was to happen.

I assume the council's put in a plan in case it goes down that road. So let me bring you back a little ways. The city has what's called an emergency measures manager, and there is an incident management team in place. It has been meeting for over two weeks now on a regular basis. I actually been staffed every day. They've worked through the weekends. and as we progress through this.

So that is who's responsible for that portion of the city side. So this is, again, it's interesting. If Saskatchewan Health Authority or the province set something out, we would work with SHA through the incident management team and go from there. It's kind of unique. I talk about signing the state of local emergency, but that's where I stay out of those meetings. I get reports on a daily basis of what's happened,

But that's purely administration doing what they need to do to ensure the viability of our community. They'll come looking for direction if it's a council-related matter. But they do the job they need to do. They have their terms of reference. They know what they can do and what they can't. They work with the health authority, the RCMP, the fire department, all the players, the Red Cross. If they got to a state, that's what would be running things from that perspective. Talking about people working non-stop, is there things that the community of Lloyd can do for its hospital, health workers, etc., that you know of?

So currently right now, I don't have any lists or requirements from the hospital. I think that from the perspective, if you have a doctor or a nurse or a health care worker that lives near you, if it was to snow, night, please go out and shovel their walk in the morning so that they don't have that stress or those kind of things. If they're in a place where there's a garbage can that needs to roll out on garbage day, roll it out for them so that's not on their mind. If you know them personally, reach out and see if there's anything they need, if you buy them some groceries and save them a trip to the store, something like that. But as far as I know, there's no immediate need from the hospital or from the healthcare professionals, other than some prayer. If, you're a

whoever you believe in, and that way, little prayer goes a long ways. And I might throw it out right now. If at 7 o'clock tonight you feel like it, go out on your deck on your home or your apartment or condo, and if you'll have a musical instrument, let's play it for our crew, because at 7 o'clock, I believe that'll be shift change.

They're starting to do that across the country. I think it'd be a great opportunity. If you want to sing, just get out, enjoy a little bit of air, and acknowledge those folks in health care, because the hospital's not surrounded by a lot of residential, but if your neighbors are in the health care and they come home at 7.7.30 and they hear some music, that'd be kind of nice.

Yeah, and they're doing, well, I mean, so many of us are in our houses, and they're going out every single day. There's a lot of people we all know that are putting in a lot of extra hours, putting themselves in the way of, you know, possible danger. Well, I say that for all our protective services, and that includes health care workers, includes police fire EMS.

They're getting called and they don't know what they're going to walk into. They're dealing with people that aren't as cooperative as they should be. And it's just challenging. So I really encourage people to think about all those people. Yesterday, the government announced that they're going to be enforcing fines on people who don't self-isolate, self-quarantine. what has been passed along to the city in that aspect? I know the numbers I heard was anywhere between $1,000 to $100,000 depending mass gatherings being essentially snuffed out, that kind of thing.

Is there anything from a city standpoint as far as the police or public health inspectors, anything that we can pass along to residents? Well, I think that back to what the federal government laid that out yesterday. So that's the jurisdiction that they're calling it out from, from a perspective. I first encourage people that the rules are you need to self-isolate if you're coming back into the country from wherever you've been. If you've been in down in Florida or you've been in Arizona and you're driving the RV back, you've got to spend two weeks at home.

If you need groceries, call a friend, call a neighbor, call a family, get a lot of them to drop off. You need to send two weeks at home. The bottom line is the federal government has said that they're prepared to authorize the police forces, both municipal and RCMP, to lay a charge if someone is reported out and about. And again, people feeling fine, having got a great tan, they're saying, hey, there's no problem, but you could be that carrier, or you could be infected, but you haven't developed a fever and all the things that go with it. So, That's what the rules there for. The government felt that they asked for people's cooperation.

Now the next step was to now say this is enforceable and they're going to find people. So again, same thing following the media line. Newfoundland had an individual. She was out about the local constabulary has arrested her and charged her with it. So, you know, now she's going to either have to pay it or go to court. And I don't think anybody wants to have to go to court and explain in front of a judge in the judge. public that they were breaking the law as simple as it is. So yeah, it's there.

It's a federal law. And from the perspective, the RCMP do enforce federal law. So if somebody reports their neighbors or somebody out and about that's got a great tan and is bragging that I don't have to be in quarantine, I'm afraid they could end up being served and charged with that offense. quarantine and social distancing two very big terms right now yeah quarantine meaning you cannot leave your house social distancing meaning you have to stay two meters away from anyone outside your house correct absolutely so from what I

understand and again I'm going to relay you on the quarantine a if you've come into the country and you have been away and basically they're saying 14 days in your home. Now, what also needs to be considered is if you're in quarantine and on day 12, you break out in a fever and start to develop some of those things, you are now quarantined for 14 more days from that day is the way it's to be interpreted and understood. That's as clear as I can be. So if you start to feel the symptoms after day one through 14 of the first int, you're going to be in for 14 more from that day to get through it,

unless you require a medical emergency. And if you do, please call 911. But first let them know, and I'll go back to this. So I understand this, if you're in that first 14-day quarantine and you feel symptoms, call 8-1-1 and they'll walk you through things so that you fully understand what you should be looking for testing yourself and things like that. Now social distancing for the rest of us that are still able to not be in quarantine or have come out of quarantine after serving the 14, 28 days, whatever it may be, you should be maintaining a two meter distance. So if you're going to the

grocery store, somebody's in front of you, you should remain back six feet. You shouldn't have somebody side by side either. Hopefully we can just work our way through the grocery store. If you're at the drug store or whatever location that's there, if you're going to, and you're picking up food at a restaurant. Somebody's in front of you. Please remain back six feet. Might mean you have to wait outside until that person gets served, pays their bill,

and then you can go in after them. So those are the kind of things that can be done very easily by people from the social distancing. Yeah, and by now all of us have seen the different ways, banks, you name it, that have it all taped off or what have you in order to promote that behavior.

and it's just good it's good to to talk about it a little bit so people can understand and and you know a little bit of patience right when you're out there and you know like all that goes along we're all pulling in this together absolutely we're all in this together there's nobody that's immune or exempt from the rules and absolutely so you know stagger your time and stagger your distance between people we're all social beings it's you know I want to say this this has been hard on a lot of people, including myself. I haven't been out like I have been for the last couple of years as mayor, and it's tough being in this office sitting at a computer and dealing with conference calls and not being able to attend things and see the city as active and as live as it is.

It's hard on people, but we also have to get through this. This is a pretty slow, short distance of pain to get through, we hope. It could be a lot worse. And I can't imagine what people went through in Second World War when they had to black out their windows day after day after day after day and things like that. We've got it pretty easy folks. We just have to get through this. Absolutely. I couldn't agree more. You're talking to a guy who loves talking to people and usually sits across from them. This is, you know, the next time we do this, hopefully where we can sit across from each other and do it. I would welcome that very much. I welcome that very much. Speaking of the city, there's been lots of things closed down.

So businesses, you know, entertainment facilities, fitness centers, arenas, bingo halls, casinos, swimming pools. The list goes on. I think this week the two newest I saw was the outdoor skating rinks and the playground equipment on school of property and city owned. So go for it. Just a little bit of clarification on that. Weirdly enough, my wife's a school teacher. and about a week ago she had a stop going on the school or the school playgrounds. We could walk by them and I understand that's still the case, but maybe we could just clean that up a bit and clarify.

Okay. So the skating, simply Mother Nature is working with us or against us, depending if you want to skate or if you don't want to skate. Because we've had water starting to run, we had to close a lot of outdoor skating surfaces on ponds. and things like that, Bud Miller, but also, again, they're starting to break, the ice is starting to melt at the outdoor ranks that we have set up throughout the year. And we're going to, I just took a look at the forecast at lunchtime. We're going to see above zero for the next couple days if Environment Canada's forecast holds. So it's a safety precaution. Once that ice starts to deteriorate, it can rot fairly quickly.

And, you know, we didn't have a really cold winter. So it's got good thickness, but it doesn't have that. of thickness overall. So I think what we want to do is, again, arrow on caution. We do this every year. We say, okay, that's the end of our activities and things like that, I'm afraid, until we transition to nice green grass. And Mother Nature will tell us how long that takes. So the skating surfaces is nothing out of the ordinary. It happens sometime in March. It can happen in February if we get real warm or it can hang in there until April if Mother Nature kept us in 30 below whether, thank goodness she hasn't. On the other side, the playground side, that again is a real

challenge because those surfaces, as we know with kids, they like to grab on to swings. They want to grab on to the monkey bars. And there's not somebody there spraying hand sanitizer and giving them hand sanitizer and cleaning that stuff steadily. And all it takes is one or two kids to put their hands in their mouth and we've got a problem again. We don't have the resources to have people stand there and say you can't be there, but we've closed them. We encourage parents to ensure that their kids understand that. This is a, again, we're in a battle here to preserve life rather than to lose life. So if someone had a problem and they didn't really realize it as a young person, maybe they have breathing issues yet they're that much more susceptible to it. And again,

the same thing, we don't want to lose a citizen through this whole pandemic if we can. So again, good stewardship. Other municipalities were doing it. We've kind of watched to see what's happening and that's what we went with was we followed the direction of other places. Public health certainly was an agreement to say this is likely the best thing you can do to help limit the spread of the virus. As far as local businesses go, is there anything, I think you may have talked about it right off the hop, but is there anything the city's looking out to, looking for or any way they can help with some of the impact that's going on? So I think it's been asked and it's being worked on.

So I'll clarify and explain that more. We've had requests from the provincial governments to work with them on programming that results for residents and businesses. Other communities have working on some things and have brought some things forward. Again, we're going to do it on hopefully one step and make sure we cover off the basis. We're looking at everything from utility bills, taxes, when they're payable, and we're looking at budgets.

So we're looking at everything right now, and you'll be hearing from City Council as soon as we have that information together from administration to bring forward so that we can put a comprehensive package together to let people know. I can say this very clearly. We have heard at City Council chats as much as we can when we have the opportunity, just what individually and individually. Everybody's hearing the same message from the community. The community is hurting.

We understand that we live in a community. I look out my window. I see 16 highway every day. So we hear it. Just bear with us. We will have a response. And I think that the people will feel that it's a fair response. I just want to caution people not saying that we're doing one thing or not.

But everything the city does, we don't have an unlimited piggy bank. The taxpayer is the city's source of revenue for a good portion of that. So what we delay and things like that, inevitable, the bill has to be paying at the end of the day. So I just caution people that. And I don't want to put up alarms, but I don't want to say that, oh, we can just write this off because I had a good example. I was talking to a friend and he was talking to somebody and they said, oh, the city's going to postpone so we don't have to ever pay that bill. And he says, postponed does not mean you don't have to pay the bill. The bill still has to be paid.

It's a matter of timing and working with the people to help get them through. we're in right now. And that's, as you can see, that's what we're likely leading towards, but without having all those details, they gladly sit down with you at that time to help, if that helps get people understanding once we come forward with it. So we get the message out to everybody, what we're doing. Actually, I was curious for my own part. Are you guys going to be doing daily updates? I know you had a YouTube video come out, just kind of addressing the situation. and I can safely say my household, and I've seen it on so many people's different social media accounts,

that kind of thing, and talking with different people that they, it's almost become a daily ritual to listen to the government's updates. I always find myself looking for a local, hence why I reached out for this, because I want to hear what's going on. And as much as I want the province, I want to know what's happening in my city and where I'm from and infecting my family, my friends, my friends, businesses, et cetera. Have you guys thought about a plan that way or anything along that lines? So thank you for that.

It's one of the challenges we've got is we have, the city has been sending out daily updates through the incident management team. and Jordan Newton who heads up our EMO program has been that spokesperson. He's shared the information he has available from that perspective. That would be the same information that I would have to share on a daily basis. So that's in his realm because as I say, I'm not sitting in those meetings every day. So he's giving you the most up-to-date information. The city administration and the city communications team has done a terrific job of putting out news releases, information to Facebook, through the social feeds, as well as our website.

That's what I encourage people to do. I appreciate the opportunity to speak to people. And again, back to that social thing. It's been hard with not having the media available and our local TV station not being able to provide those interviews after council and ask those questions. It is difficult. But we believe we've been given the information that I could give. Certainly, we're wrestling with that.

too because I haven't been on social media and I'm not a social media person I'll be the first to admit that I apologize to those that think I should be but I haven't had the time first of all and until this you can have found me in the office out in the public phone calls emails all looked after it's a little tough when I can't get out and sit down and have a cup of coffee with somebody or somebody can stop me in the grocery store on Sunday wherever I'm at or wherever and that's the tough part but The information you've been getting would be the information I'd be able to give a day later. So you've been getting as current as information that you can get.

Certainly, I'm going to try, and we're looking at, we've talked about maybe doing the weekly, you know, me in front of the camera and just doing what we're doing like this. But speaking to the public is something we might consider. But there hasn't been a lot of change because I think we've reached a certain point. And, you know, I don't know what that next point is going to look like. As conference calls, I can relate to this, we've been having. them and some of them now people are saying okay maybe we only need to do twice a week because there's just not that many updates we've we've got down to the point of less than 10

people what else can we close for businesses those kind of things that kind of stuff's all been dealt with it's really up to people now to help flatten the plank and take away the spike of the virus spreading so I appreciate it but I in the same token it's it's something I just don't have the time to sit down and do something every night on Facebook. And as soon as I do that, people don't want me to respond to their particular questions. So I appreciate doing it this way. I will, I continue to answer letters, emails, phone calls. And, you know, City Hall, the doors are not open to the public, but we're still here working. One more time, where can people find local information then on the city's website?

City website and that will lead you to information about COVID-19, it leads you about closures, it leads you to the information about the state of local emergency, what should be and what isn't open. That is the main source from that perspective. The city has a Facebook page, so you can access the city Facebook page. And if you don't have a computer and you aren't able to,

please call the city at 780-875-6184 with your question and will direct you to someone that. can answer that for you. Perfect. Finally, is there anything else you want to talk to the city of Lloyd Minster and area, the people here, the businesses, anything that comes off the top of your mind or that's a concern of yours, Mayor? Well, I do.

Thank you very much. I want to be as direct and straightforward as I can be on this. I need to ask each and every one of you. It doesn't matter if you're a toddler to an elderly person that we need to. have social distancing. We need to refrain from gathering in groups. I know it's difficult. It's really hard. Like I said before, it's hard on myself. It's hard on my wife. We're communicating with our family by Facebook. Sorry, what's up. They're out east. But please take this seriously. This is, we are in a battle here. I don't want to, I've used the word war and I want to be

careful with that. But we are in a battle and this is a battle like none of us have fought. We have veterans in this community that served on the front lines and brought us freedom. And they know what a battle truly is. We've got an awful light to be asked to stay at home for 14 days, self-isolate or keep your social distance at six feet. Those folks left a lot on the battlegrounds of Europe and in the Pacific. And I want to say thank you to them again for that service. But from the perspective, folks, we've got to step up as today and do our part to make this go away. And again, it's challenging. It's hard to understand because we can't see what's coming at us.

It's invisible until you get it. And again, what I've read, what I've seen scares the hell out of me. I'll use that word. It does scare the hell out of me. And I need to make sure people fully understand the impact of what we're facing. because you say, oh, I'm strong, I'm young, I'm going to get past it. You might, but you might be the one, as I said earlier, the one that infects an older person next door, your grandparents, even your own parents or your own family.

How do you live with that, knowing that you didn't do your part and were the one responsible? So I don't want to come down heavy, but I've been asked to by people that said people in the community don't get this. People are out wandering around thinking it's school breaks on and it's not going to end and this is a wonderful thing. No, this is not a wonderful thing. We just need to get through this as a community and as two provinces and a country and the world. You just have to turn on the news. It's not a pretty situation in Italy.

And that's when just scares the heck out of them. You know, there's a lot of issues that they still don't fully understand. We know what China's gone through. Spain is in a tough spot. Iran. And even now the United States, simply because of the number of people. We have a lot less people. We have a lot of space.

So to be able to go for a walk is a wonderful thing, but maintain the social distance of two meters. And, you know, if you see your neighbor, stand on each side of the street and visit with them. Or from driveway to driveway and be at the far ends of the driveway. It can be done, and we're getting to spring. But that's what I'm also concerned about is there'll be more people saying, oh, the green grass is here. the warmth will kill it. It doesn't kill it. It's around the world,

every country basically in the world other than the Antarctic, is what I understand. So Mother Nature will take care of itself, but I don't want to see that happen. Let's do something about that. So that's what I'd like to leave you with.

Awesome. Well, thanks for joining me, and thanks for taking the time. Thank you. Thanks for the invitation. And like you say, hopefully the next time we do this, we'll be sitting across from each other

with a smile on our faces talking about something much better.