The Telegram (St. John's)

Learning to do without

- Saltwire Network

When the COVID-19 pandemic really began to take hold in Canada, deaths in long-term care homes and rising infection rates in British Columbia were front and centre on the news across Canada. Also front and centre? Dr. Bonnie Henry, British Columbia’s empathic, pragmatic and exceedingl­y profession­al provincial health officer. A voice of reason during a frightenin­g time, she brought a calm to the tempest that was welcome; she spoke about the pandemic in a step-by-step fashion, dealing with the facts as they appeared, and never venturing into hyperbole. With cases falling in most parts of the country, we don’t see her on the national news as much anymore. But something she said earlier this week is well worth thinking about: “I cannot see vacation travel, this summer, from the U.S., given the rates that we’re seeing and how widespread (COVID-19) is in the U.S. right now,” she told a news conference on Monday. Henry is likely being just as conservati­ve as she always is: in truth, it may be a lot longer than just the end of the summer before Americans will be allowed back into Canada for non-essential travel. The first wave of COVID-19 infection is still growing in the United States, and, given the size of the American population, that can be expected to continue for quite some time, not even considerin­g the expected further waves of the virus. And that has a bunch of consequenc­es for Canadians. For the tourism and hospitalit­y business, it means a loss of a key component of customers. It means changes in the way we do business with our neighbour and largest trading partner, and a change in the ease of access for products between our countries. Because borders are a two-way street. As B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix pointed out at the same news conference, “It’s important to remember it’s not just the issue of people visiting Canada … It’s Canadians visiting the United States that would not be possible at this point.” Not only are we going to have to adapt to not having non-essential visitors here, we are also going to have to adapt to where we may not be able to go as non-essential travellers ourselves. Snowbirds who regularly head to Florida for the winter months not only might not want to head south this coming winter, they may not be able to. Travel destinatio­ns like Walt Disney World in Orange County, Fla., may be starting to reopen as early as tomorrow, but don’t expect them to be the vacation destinatio­n for Canadians any time soon. And don’t even get us started on cruise ship vacations. This isn’t hyperbole or fear-mongering. It’s the same kind of pragmatism Henry has modelled. What’s changed may not be changing back any time soon.

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