Cottage country visiting controversy taxing the patience of Ontarians

Despite some grumbling, Canadians quietly submitted to the governmentimposed lockdown, but their co-operative mood is being tested by better weather, cottage life and a lack of consistent rules.

Many families were quick to cancel spring break travel plans because of the COVID-19 threat, but two months later it’s apparently quite another thing to suggest people continue to stay away from their cottages and the small communities that normally rely on them.

Some year-round residents in towns where they have had few, if any, cases of COVID-19, don’t want visitors stressing local resources such as grocery stores, possibly spreading the coronavirus and overwhelming local hospitals. Cottage owners say they’ll buy groceries in the city, if necessary, but, of course, they can’t take a hospital ICU bed with them.

Bracebridge Mayor Graydon Smith points out public health officials still warn against unnecessary travel, and says “people should not pick and choose the public health advice they follow.”

The message from many other Ontario communities is the same: stay away, at least for now.

Wasaga Beach has asked police to keep people off its 14-kilometre beach during the May long weekend. The Bruce County town of Huron-Kinloss won’t turn on the water supply to seasonal residents in order to keep cottagers away. The area already had a visitor test positive for COVID-19, forcing three nurses into self-isolation for 14 days.

Public health officials in Simcoe Muskoka urged people to stay in their primary residences, while the public health unit in Haldimand-Norfolk went further, issuing an order telling cottagers not to visit their Lake Erie vacation homes, threatening fines of $5,000 a day.

Cottage owners, understandably, are up in arms, complaining they pay taxes on those second residences, support local businesses and are capable of social distancing wherever they are.

Premier Doug Ford, a cottage owner, had been urging people for weeks not to descend on smaller communities that aren’t prepared to host seasonal residents so early in the year. But Ford changed his tune Tuesday, and told the mayors of cottage country communities, the same mayors he’ll consult later in the week, to “be prepared because people are coming up on May 24th.”

Ford said he understood the anger of cottage owners who’ve been calling him complaining they shouldn’t have to pay taxes if they’re not allowed to go to their property, and noted local businesses rely on seasonal customers to survive the rest of the year. The premier predicted most people will bring their own food, self isolate and not go into town as often as normal. He pointed out there is no official ban on going to the cottage.

“People are co-operating, so we have to give a little bit ... If you put down the hammer and say ‘you just aren’t coming’ ... people aren’t going to listen.” Different rules for different folks?

Ford also suggested the chief medical officer of health in Haldimand-Norfolk was premature ordering non-residents to stay away from their cottages.

As Ontario plans to ease travel restrictions this month, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island are talking about banning all non-residents for the entire summer, except between the two provinces, both of which “crushed the curve” and had no deaths from COVID-19.

One of the most unwelcome measures adopted during the pandemic was the establishment of what hopefully are temporary police checks at some provincial borders. It looks like N.B. and P.E.I. want to keep them all summer. I guess we won’t see them on highways to cottage areas in Ontario.