News Releases

• Wallet cards received at time of immunization
• A printed copy of your MySaskHealthRecord vaccine certificate (with or without a QR code) or a ‘screenshot’ of your vaccine certificate (with or without a QR code) saved to your device
• A COVID-19 vaccine printout from Saskatchewan Health Authority Public Health
• A QR code/MySaskHealthRecord vaccine certificate uploaded to SK Vax Wallet app which will is available free from Google Play or Apple App stores
• Official proof of vaccine documents from other governments

The Saskatchewan Health Authority and the City of Saskatoon would like make you aware that we are seeing increased COVID-19 activity in the City of Saskatoon, in addition to the rest of Saskatchewan.

We are asking everyone to be extra vigilant. Protect yourself and your family at all times during the pandemic by following all public health recommendations and ensuring you do your part to stop the spread.

As we approach the upcoming long weekend, we also ask that you keep your festivities small and defer all interactions with others if you feel any symptoms compatible with COVID-19.

When making travel plans with your family, we remind you to consider whether or not your travel is truly essential. This includes travel within or outside of our province or outside of Canada. We are seeing a number of outbreaks declared throughout our province, and in other jurisdictions, putting everyone at increased risk of potential exposure to COVID with non-essential travel playing a role.

As the public health situation across Saskatchewan continues to evolve, the one constant is the need to maintain a united effort to keep our communities safe. We are all doing our part, and it is truly remarkable to see the work that can be accomplished when we work together to prevent COVID-19 infections within our daily bubbles at school, home, work and other recreation and social activities.

With that, we are asking that you keep a close eye on how big your bubble has actually become as you have increased your activities. As the risk of local transmission increases, now is the time to reset your household and reduce the risk to those who matter most to you.

We are all now part of other cohorts: in the workplace, at school, and at extracurricular and social activities. Observing the necessary public health guidance in each of these settings and keeping our close contact list short is a vital step in reducing the risk of COVID-19 transmission.

Please remember the following:

• Your extended household is the people you can hug and touch, or those who can become part of your daily and weekly routines. This should be 15 people or less. Ideally, it is only members of your direct household.
• Assess your extended household. Does it include children in school settings, school staff, essential employees, or vulnerable populations like seniors or those with underlying health conditions? Consider that all of your contacts are now their contacts, too.
• In the event that you are required to provide your activities and contacts as part of a public health contact investigation, can you name all those individuals you have come into close contact with over the last two weeks? If you cannot, adjust your routines and close contacts.
• Stay home from all activities and workplaces even if you are experiencing even mild symptoms.

Symptoms include: fever, cough, headache, muscle and/or joint aches and pains, sore throat, chills, runny nose, nasal congestion, conjunctivitis, dizziness, fatigue, nausea/vomiting, diarrhea, loss of appetite (difficulty feeding for children), loss of sense of taste or smell, shortness of breath, and difficulty breathing. An online self-assessment is available at www.Saskatchewan.ca/COVID19 

It is also important to continue self-screening; enhanced hand hygiene; masking when physical distancing cannot be maintained; and cohorting (or grouping).

The Health Canada COVID Alert app is available to all Saskatchewan residents at no cost in the Apple and Google Play app store. The app is another tool available to help prevent the transmission of COVID-19 by letting people know of possible exposures without sharing any personal information.

From the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak, every action we have taken has been based on the principle of keeping our community safe. Clearly, we all have an important role to play.

Please keep yourself personally informed by regularly visiting the Government of Saskatchewan’s website for the latest information on COVID, including safety guidelines at www.Saskatchewan.ca/COVID19.

Thank-you for all you are doing to keep Saskatoon safe. Please visit Saskatoon.ca/covid-19 for updates on changes to City programs and services. 

Since the announcement on September 15, 2020, of a confirmed case of Dutch elm disease (DED) in a tree near Saskatoon’s Montgomery neighbourhood, the City has been actively implementing the DED Response Plan which has included:

• Immediate removal of the positive tree
• ​Disposal of the infected tree at the City landfill
• Sampling of adjacent trees
• Surveillance and testing of private and public trees in the surrounding area including Montgomery, Fairhaven, Meadowgreen and South Industrial areas, with an intensive search for elm material and other sources of infection 

During their search, inspectors have issued 71 infraction notices (46 of which contained elm firewood), removed over 13,000 kilograms of elm wood from private property, and sampled an additional 20 trees with so far no additional positive test results from the lab. Inspectors have also found several instances where wood was moved from elsewhere with elm bark beetle activity in the wood.

“We would like to remind residents that the most effective management strategy for DED is to not transport or store elm wood,” says Jeff Boone, City Entomologist. “Infected firewood is the most likely way that DED would be brought into Saskatoon.”

Residents can help prevent DED by:

• Not pruning elms during the provincial pruning ban (April 1 to August 31)
• ​Not storing or transporting any elm firewood – provincial regulations prohibit the storing or transporting of elm firewood
• Always dispose of any elm wood at the City Landfill

The DED Response Plan will continue in the spring and summer of 2021 and will focus on searching for symptomatic trees to confirm that the disease has not spread.

For more information on DED, visit saskatoon.ca/dutchelmdisease.

The Spadina Lift Station, on the west shore of the South Saskatchewan River, is nearing the end of its service life. Construction on a new lift station is now underway on the same site.

“We rely on the existing Spadina Lift Station to transport about sixty per-cent of Saskatoon’s wastewater from the sanitary sewer system to the Wastewater Treatment Plant,” says Russ Munro, Director of Saskatoon Water. “The lift station is more than seventy years old and has reached a point where major modifications would ne necessary for it to keep up with growing capacity. It is more cost effective to build a new one.”

The City is grateful for its funding partnership with the Government of Canada and the Government of Saskatchewan to help make this project a reality. Under the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program, the Government of Canada will fund up to $7.2 million toward the Spadina Lift Station project and the Government of Saskatchewan will contribute up to $5,999,400. The remainder of the $18 million project will be funded by the City of Saskatoon, along with any additional costs.

A second building on the same site was completed in 2016 and serves as a bypass lift station. It operates whenever the primary lift station can not meet the flow demand. Unlike the existing lift station, it will not be demolished and will remain in use following completion of the new lift station.

Beginning on Tuesday, October 12, 2021, the Meewasin Trail next to the lift station site will be closed and trail users will be detoured onto a temporary trail (see map). The original trail will reopen once construction is complete in 2023.  

For more information about the project and to see a map of the construction site and temporary trail detour, visit saskatoon.ca/liftstation.