A step forward

Well, now we get to see if we can play together nicely. And, for that matter, responsibly. Wednesday, Atlantic Canada got a really big bubble. On July 3, residents of all four of the Atlantic provinces will be able to move within the region’s borders, able to visit family, head out on a vacation, or reconnect with close friends in slightly distant places.

For businesses, especially in the hospitality and tourism industry, it’s a glimmer on what has been a very dark horizon — a chance to salvage at least something of an otherwise potentially disastrous tourism season. Take just one part of the region: from last April to this April, Nova Scotia saw a 47 per cent drop in employment in accommodation and food services. It’s hard to run either of those kinds of businesses without out-ofprovince customers — and now, perhaps, there will at least be some. It must, at least, bring some hope.

For the rest of us, it’s one more small step towards something like the normalcy we used to simply take for granted.

It is a great thing that our four provinces have been able to resist the spread of COVID-19 to the point that we can feel safe sharing each other’s home provinces.

But with that great thing comes great responsibility. Throughout this pandemic, we have had to depend on everyone around us to take part in limiting risk. The head of the World Health Organization, miles away from our bubble, put it pretty clearly: we are literally all in this together, only as safe as our neighbours are.

And that’s why the Atlantic bubble is also not only a leap of faith, but a bet by governments that we will recognize the need to be diligent, and to act as thinking and caring citizens.

The number of people around us just got much, much bigger, and the there’s more than a little risk in that — a risk that’s magnified every time someone decides they’re too embarrassed to either take basic precautions, or fails to suggest to others that safety can’t simply be ignored because there are so few cases. But bubbles are, by their very nature, fragile things. Like all things in this pandemic, everything hangs in the balance: one false step, one super-spreader event, one person contaminating a public place, and you can expect everything to turn on a dime and right back to closed doors.

So, go ahead and make your plans. Beachball? Check. Towels? Check. Fishing rod? Check.

Spare masks, hand sanitizer and an ironbound commitment to wash your hands regularly and thoroughly? Check, check and check.

Be ready, be thorough, have fun.

But play safe. The last thing we want is for this bubble to pop.