Niverville mayor fights back and wants community exempt from new COVID-19 restrictions

The mayor of Niverville, Man., Is insulted that his community faces increased COVID-19 restrictions and requests an exemption because its vaccination rate is above the provincial average.

Myron Dyck said he doesn’t dispute the need for stricter rules in the province where the number of cases is rising, but he doesn’t like the way it is regionalized and leaves Niverville clustered with communities with low vaccination rates .

“I say it was a bit of a stretch and I hope Dr Roussin sees it, and we can meet and it can be fixed,” he said.

The province’s chief public health officer Dr Brent Roussin on Friday announced new rules that target the unvaccinated by reducing gatherings if they include people eligible for vaccination but who do not have it. summer.

While these rules are province-wide, the new restrictions also come with a specific limitation for the Southern Health Region, which contains the Manitoba communities with the lowest vaccination rates and therefore , a disproportionate share of the growing number of cases.

Southern Health Region businesses are set to cut capacity to 50% as of Tuesday as Manitoba moves to restricted Orange level of its pandemic response system.

When Roussin revealed the new orders, he said they amounted to “a very significant lockdown of the unvaccinated” to prevent the health system from being overwhelmed again.

Dyck’s frustration with the crackdown in the south is that his community has done everything requested of it and, by Monday, 82.1% of its residents had been doubly vaccinated.

This is slightly higher than the provincial average of 81.1.

Despite Niverville’s efforts, the overall vaccination rate in the Southern Health Region is 66.1%, driven by rates of 24.2 in the RM of Stanley, 41.8 in Winkler, and 50-70% in several other communities.

Dyck reached out to Roussin after the new orders announced Friday to request a meeting and request that Niverville be excluded from the latest rules. Specifically, he wants the 50 percent retail restriction removed for Niverville.

Not only is this hurting financially the companies that have done their part, but it is also a hardship for staff who are constantly being made redundant and rehired every time the province changes health orders, he said.

These employees have been on the front lines during the pandemic, facing the vitriol of people who refuse to wear masks or follow the rules. At some point, those employees will simply give up and stop coming back, Dyck said.

“They are doing their part… and we are among the leaders in immunization rates in the province, [but] we’re told it doesn’t matter, you’re just gonna be lumped together anyway [with those other communities]”said Dyck.

“So their morale took a huge hit. “

Niverville, about 20 kilometers south of Winnipeg’s Perimeter Freeway, is a dormitory community in the city, which is the health region in Manitoba with the highest vaccination rate at 87.7%. Dyck would like his city to be treated with the same consideration as Winnipeg.

At one point during the pandemic, Winnipeg’s workload was higher than that of rural areas and was subject to greater restrictions. At that time, Niverville was considered part of what was called the Capital Region, so it was also affected by the restrictions, Dyck said.

So why is he being pushed back now, he asked.

“It’s like, no, no, you’re not a part of us anymore.”

At a press conference on Monday, Roussin was asked why the restrictions, clearly aimed at low-consumption areas, must include all of Southern Health.

He said it is much more difficult to impose targeted restrictions for small areas because people will simply avoid them by going to the next closest location, where the restrictions do not apply. It has to cover an area to be more effective, he said.

If it’s really about discouraging travel, that still doesn’t explain why Niverville needs to be undercover, Dyck said.

The main commercial area of ​​the city includes the communities of St-Pierre-Jolys, Ste. Agathe, Saint-Adolphe and Ile des Chênes – all regions with higher vaccination rates, he said.

“I dare say these… Dr. Roussin is worried, you’ll see them in Winnipeg more than you will see them in Niverville,” Dyck said, as people travel to the largest city in the province for make big box purchases at Costco and other unavailable stores. somewhere else.

“A challenge to vaccines”

Brandon Burley, the mayor of Morden, who is surrounded by the RM of Stanley, took to Twitter following Friday’s announcement by Roussin to express his outrage at those who are not vaccinated.

“We need to stop calling anti-vaccines ‘vaccine hesitant.’ This language gives them a fence to sit on. They are ‘vaccine resistant’,” he wrote.

Burley also said he expected the new ordinances to be much stricter and called on the province to strengthen law enforcement to ensure compliance with the new rules.

“Otherwise, the orders are worthless.

The town of Burley, located just 10 kilometers from Winkler, has a vaccination rate of 69.7%, the highest for this part of the province.

“Nothing could be more detached from reality than to expect [the] unvaxxed in this region to adhere to the new public restrictions on their own, ”he wrote.

“Until the province sends help on the app, the restrictions won’t make any difference except to hurt those who were already doing their best.”

When asked on Monday if enforcement would increase, Roussin said it was a matter for Manitoba Justice.

Reporters also asked him what makes him think those who have not complied with the restrictions so far will comply with the new orders.

“It’s a concern,” Roussin said. “We need people to buy into it or we’re going to see those numbers increase. Throughout this pandemic, Manitobans continue to be relied upon to step up and do the right thing. “