Thread by @AndrewLawton

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney says his cabinet Covid committee has passed a plan to "get our lives back to normal." He's about to present said plan.

Kenney says Alberta's policy has always been about safeguarding healthcare system while "minimizing the damaging effect of restrictions on broader health of our society."

"With what we know now... the threat of Covid-19 to public health no longer outweighs the hugely damaging impact of health restrictions," Kenney says.

"We'll never be able to know the extent of the pain and hardship that restrictions have caused," Kenney said.

"We cannot remain at a heightened state of emergency forever. We have to begin to heal. And so Alberta will move on, but we'll do so carefully. We'll do so prudently," Kenney says, adding it will only happen so long as it doesn't impact healthcare system.

Alberta's reopening is in three steps:

1) Almost all restrictions affecting kids, including K-12 mask mandate in schools and 2-12 mask mandate in indoor public spaces, lifted as of this weekend.

BREAKING: Alberta's vaccine passport program is OVER effective at midnight tonight, Premier Jason Kenney announces.

Kenney defends the vaccine passport, saying it has saved lives by boosting vaccine uptake since it was introduced in September.

Phase 2 (target date March 1): Most remaining restrictions, including indoor mask mandate and remaining capacity limits, lifted.

Here are the major changes in Alberta:

- Vaccine passport is gone tonight
- As of this weekend, children exempt from mask mandate and the K-12 school mandate is gone
- March 1 (pending hospitalization figures): Most restrictions, including mask mandate, are gone.

"None of this is an end to Covid-19. New variants will arrive, and we still see times when cases are higher in the province... But restrictions, mandates, and those kinds of interventions, will not and must not become a permanent feature of our lives," Kenney says.

"None of this has to do with a few trucks parked at the Coutts border crossing," Kenney says. Denies protests have influenced Alberta's decision to announce reopening and points to other countries around the world reopening without convoy movements.

Kenney says he predicts people will need annual Covid boosters for years, and he doesn't want to see vaccine passports become a permanent fixture.