Kahnawake’s Emergency Preparedness Law: Reverts Back
Written by Jeremy Zafran on 15 March 2023
In another sign that the pandemic is in the rear-view mirror, most of the early day Covid-19 restrictions have now fallen by the wayside. The latest, Kahnawake’s Emergency Preparedness Law which has reverted to its original form that dates to 2008, the last time it was permanently amended. Lloyd Phillips is the Commissioner of Public Safety:
“All the changes that were made in April of 2021, are no longer in force and a big part of that was the inclusion of a recovery phase, where the goal is to phase out directives or phase out emergency measures until we turned back to a ‘state of normalcy.’ There’s a transition phase which was obviously required during the pandemic and is required throughout any emergency.”
Kahnawà:ke Emergency Preparedness Law and Regulations were amended on April 6th, 2021, to specifically deal with the pandemic. That version is no longer in force. According to Phillips, the law will be reviewed:
“When it goes back into the CDMP process, there will be some recommended changes made for the community to consider. Some of the changes that were made during the pandemic will be part of that recommended changes, but we’ll do a full law review since we have the opportunity to look at it to make sure that it meets our current needs, because it hasn’t been updated since 2008, so it needs a review regardless.”
Phillips saying that the law will be reviewed, but a specific timeline has yet to be announced.
