“We must find a way to get our lives back to normal,” Canadian Premier Jason Kenney said Thursday.
QUICK FACTS:
- Alberta will move toward lifting COVID-19 restrictions early next week, starting with the Restrictions Exemptions Program and measures involving children, Premier Jason Kenney said Thursday, the Calgary Herald reports.
- The move comes as a truck convoy arrived in the city on Saturday at around 12 pm (MT) on Parliament Hill to protest coronavirus mandates.
- The COVID cabinet committee will also lay out a phased plan to remove almost all public health restrictions later this month as long as there is declining pressure on hospitals, Kenney said in an hour-long Facebook Live.
- Kenney said Thursday that he hoped to be able to lift most public health measures by the end of the month if the pressure on the healthcare system declines sufficiently.
- “After two years of this, we simply cannot continue to rely on the blunt instrument of damaging restrictions as that as a primary tool to cope with a disease that will likely be with us for the rest of our lives,” Kenney added.
WHAT PREMIER KENNEY SAID:
“My message to those who are frustrated about COVID(-19) policies is this: I hear you loud and clear. You are right to point to the damaging impact of restrictions,” said Kenney.
BACKGROUND:
- A member of Kenney’s cabinet also called for the premier to remove public health restrictions, the Calgary Herald notes.
- Environment and Parks Minister Jason Nixon said in a statement issued Thursday that he will “hold” Kenney to his promise to remove vaccination mandates “imminently.”
- “It is clear now that mandates like the Restrictions Exemption Program are not as effective against the current COVID-19 situation as much as health officials expected,” Nixon wrote.
