COVID-19 walls strain fluidity among provinces
Movement has long been free-flowing
The COVID- 19 pandemic brings the unusual presence of police and government checkpoints to several of Canada’s interprovincial borders, adding to restrictions on movement in a bid to slow the spread of the deadly novel coronavirus.
The Quebec government placed new restrictions to limit movement into the province Wednesday, including police controlling travel between Ottawa and Gatineau, separating the two sides of Canada’s unified National Capital Region.
Manitoba has had checkpoints running on all of its highways linking with Ontario and Saskatchewan since Friday, and Nova Scotia was an early adopter of travel checkpoints into the province.
In Quebec, new police checkpoints were put in place for traffic between the province and Ontario, between Quebec and New Brunswick, and between Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador.
Checkpoints on bridges into Ottawa were in place Wednesday afternoon. There were no restrictions on people leaving Quebec, only on those entering.
“By limiting entry and exit, public health authorities believe they can further limit and prevent the spread of COVID-19,” the government said in its announcement.
Since Saturday, the government has had internal checkpoints in several locations, aiming to limit non- essential travel. The Outaouais, the region surrounding Gatineau, was added to the list on Monday, along with four other parts of the province.
Asked about Quebec restricting interprovincial movement Wednesday, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said Quebec has the federal government’s “support and admiration.”
“Quebec has taken some strong measures today. The province of Quebec has our support and admiration for showing real leadership there,” she said at the regular COVID-19 briefing.
Health Minister Patty Hajdu, however, was less enthusiastic.
“Different jurisdictions are going to take different measures based on their own epidemiology and their own realities and obviously that is well within their jurisdiction to do that,” Hajdu said.
“While provinces and territories and, indeed, the federal government take a variety of different measures to help prevent close contact of people and increased mobility that we know, in some cases, puts an additional strain on systems, I think the practical steps of really doubling down on some of the recommendations of the World Health Organization are increasingly important. And that’s where I as the minister of health have my attention focused on.”
On Friday, Manitoba erected checkpoints at its five major interprovincial border crossings in its bid to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus.
The checkpoints are on the province’s boundaries with Ontario and Saskatchewan.
The stops will be for information and health purposes only, said Ron Schuler, the minister responsible for emergency measures.
“All of our cases are basically from people travelling into the province. So we have been trying to get the message out that you must quarantine for 14 days,” Schuler said in an interview.
He said a flag person waves each vehicle to pull over and a masked and gloved provincial employee speaks to the driver and provides a sheet of paper with health information.
“Everyone gets a sheet of paper whether you’re on two wheels or 18 wheels,” Schuler said.
No one will be denied entry into Manitoba. And no information is collected from the travellers. Unless, he said, the driver doesn’t stop. Then the licence plate will be sent to the RCMP with a request for intervention.
The checkpoints meet traffic heading west from Ontario on the Trans- Canada Highway, between West Hawk Lake and Falcon Lake. On the other side of Manitoba, eastbound traffic on the Trans- Canada Highway gets a similar greeting near Kirkella.
Other checkpoints are on three provincial trunk highways crossing from Saskatchewan: Highway 16 near Russell; Highway 5W near Roblin; and Highway 2, near Sinclair.
On Tuesday, 2,425 vehicles were stopped on Trans- Canada Highway, 1,433 from Ontario and 992 from Saskatchewan. Traffic on the trunk highways are far less, totalling 547 on all three.
Manitoba declared a provincewide state of emergency over COVID- 19 on March 20. All travellers, both international and domestic, are to self-isolate and self-monitor for symptoms for 14 days after arriving in Manitoba.
Nova Scotia declared its stare of emergency on March 22, but immediately moved to “tighten” its borders.
All land, sea and air entry points are “closely managed.”
“Anyone entering the province will be stopped, questioned and told to self- isolate for 14 days,” the government declared. Exemptions were allowed healthy workers in trades and transportation sectors who move goods and people; healthy people going to work and people travelling into the province for essential health services.
“These decisions were not made lightly and should signal to Nova Scotians the seriousness of what’s before us,” Premier Stephen Mcneil said at the time. “These orders may seem harsh but they are absolutely necessary.”
authorities believe they can further prevent the spread.