Confusing message not terribly helpful

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/08/2020 (1964 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s confusing enough for society to be in the middle of a pandemic, but when the province’s messaging is confusing and its numbers contradictory, it only causes more chaos for the citizens they are supposed to inform.

On Aug. 19, the Pallister government issued a 78-page document that outlined the new colour-coded Pandemic Response System. The document offers detailed information about how different facets of the province — everything from schools and businesses to government-subsidized housing and recreational facilities — would operate under various colour levels, whether green, yellow, orange or red.

Also included within the lengthy descriptions is a one-page chart guide under the heading “overview of sectors” that lists conceivable items and locations and how they would change under various colour levels. This table guide seems to act as an overview of the various lengthy descriptions that follow — but as we have since learned, it is inaccurate.

And unfortunately, following Thursday’s announcement that Prairie Mountain Health had been reclassified under the orange level and would have new restrictions imposed, it’s also the most widely shared part of that guide.

In the written portion of the guide, under the heading “Casinos” in Appendix D (page 42), the province has written that when a district is under orange-level restrictions, casinos “may” face “further reduction of occupancy limits or closure.” However, the chart states unequivocally that casino facilities would be “closed” under the orange-level restrictions.

Performing arts and movie theatres, like casinos, fall under similar messaging within the document — stated to “be required to have further occupancy limits or to close” under Appendix D, but “closed” on the chart.

That confusion was left unclarified by the province, and only caught by the Sun on Monday when one of our readers noted that the casino was still operating. It also left the Sand Hills Casino in a bit of a quandary as many of its customers believed the facility to be closed to the public under the orange-level restrictions.

For the record, the Sand Hills Casino near Carberry and the Landmark Cinemas movie theatre in Brandon are both open and allowed to be so by the province.

Yet even when questioned yesterday by the Sun about the discrepancies, we received this reply from the province: “The information presented on page 42 is correct. The #Restart Pandemic Response System (PRS) was designed to be a flexible approach that allows public health to tailor responses to the epidemiology being presented. The PRS outlines what could happen in sectors when the alert level is raised. The current specific restrictions in place for Prairie Mountain Health were based on the current epidemiology and according to the system framework.”

This really doesn’t explain the contradictory messaging within the document.

We also learned on Monday that the Brandon School Division was not being asked to operate under the Code Orange restrictions that fell upon the rest of the Prairie Mountain Health region.

BSD Supt. Marc Casavant mentioned during Monday’s board of trustees meeting that this isn’t a matter of the school division going rogue, but rather that they were taking direction from the province.

“I’ll be honest, when we heard the announcement (about the Pandemic Response System) we were under the assumption that the orange alert meant that everything was under that,” Casavant said. “But what we’re understanding now, in correspondence from the (education) department, that the Prairie Mountain Health region has been put under that, but education will be directed a little bit later before school starts.”

His confusion is our confusion too, as no one from the province — the chief provincial public health officer, Dr. Brent Roussin, Health Minister Cameron Friesen or Education Minister Kelvin Goertzen — deigned to clarify that little detail when given the chance late last week or on Monday during the COVID-19 media conference call. Clearly the situation caught Casavant off guard, as well as the Brandon Teachers’ Association and a great many parents.

It’s also worth noting that under the orange-level restrictions, there are no messaging discrepancies within the Pandemic Response System document as with casinos and theatres — grades 9 to 12 would require remote learning. Why the province has decided to go this route still remains unclear. The only explanation we received yesterday was that because of the additional measures being implemented at schools in Manitoba, “public health officials have not recommended additional restrictions specific to schools at this time.”

Also this week, the Winnipeg Free Press reported that the number of Maple Leaf Foods employees who have tested positive for COVID-19 as recorded by Manitoba public health officials do not align with the figures provided Monday by the company to the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 832, the union that represents the 2,000 pork plant workers.

At a COVID-19 briefing Monday, Manitoba’s chief public health officer, Dr. Brent Roussin, said the number of workers who have tested positive at the “business in Brandon” — Maple Leaf Foods — is 52, with just 34 active cases. Yet the union told media the same day that 74 workers at the pork processing plant have tested positive, with 62 active cases and 12 employees who have recovered.

While Dr. Roussin was unsure of why there was a discrepancy in the numbers — he suggested the company may have been counting people who are linked to infected workers as well — he promised to check and confirm the actual number.

At a time when anxiety levels in our city and our region are high as we live within these orange-level restrictions in Prairie Mountain Health, we need our government to provide clear, straightforward information that is both accurate and reliable.

The province needs to do much better than this.