Feds are not in charge of the fight against COVID-19 — thankfully
One of the stranger ideas to come out of the nation’s capital in recent weeks was lighting a fire under the nation’s tourism industry, even as a huge chunk of the country’s population was still being asked to lay low. On May 31, Economic Development Minister Mélanie Joly splashed out $70 million to “help provinces and territories encourage Canadians to discover their ‘own backyard’,” The Canadian Press reported.
To be fair, travel within and between the majority of provinces really shouldn’t be a problem at this point. There were just 60 new COVID-19 cases in Saskatchewan (two), Alberta (47) and British Columbia (11) combined on Wednesday, and just five in New Brunswick (four) and Nova Scotia (one). There were no new cases in Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, Manitoba or the territories.
But the fact remains that Newfoundland, P.E.I. and New Brunswick are all banning non-essential and non-resident arrivals and, along with Nova Scotia and Manitoba, requiring those who do arrive to self-isolate for 14 days. Western provinces aren’t exactly encouraging visitors either, as I discovered while researching outdoorsy vacation ideas: British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan have restricted camping at provincial parks to residents; Manitoba has banned all non-resident travel north of the 53rd parallel.
Encouraging tourism makes no sense at all in Ontario or Quebec. The Toronto and Montreal areas have far and away the most and the highest rate of cases, while by comparison, other regions — including those Torontonians and Montrealers enjoy travelling to — barely have a problem. Both provincial governments have struggled with how to reopen on a regional basis without encouraging mass migration from coronavirus hot zones. The last thing they need is federal tourism agencies encouraging it.
But then, making sense hasn’t exactly been the federal government’s forte these last three months.
My summer vacation ideas have since migrated across the Atlantic, where European Union countries are planning to open to foreign tourists on July 1 — specifically to Spain, which thinks it finally has a handle on COVID-19, and Portugal, whose per-capita death toll was lower than Canada’s. Like many countries, both have made face masks compulsory in various circumstances — certainly on public transit. In Germany, which had 15 per cent fewer cases per capita than Canada and half as many deaths, most states have mandated wearing masks in public since the end of April. And the science may even be moving on: The National Post’s Sharon Kirkey reports that a growing body of research and expert opinion suggests full face masks may be considerably more effective.
Here in Canada, however, astonishing scenes continue. On Thursday the Toronto Transit Commission announced it intends to make masks mandatory for riders — no word of a lie — in three weeks, on July 2. That’s assuming the commission approves the measure … next Wednesday. TTC CEO Rick Leary was at pains to stress the rule would never be enforced.
Meanwhile Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, could not appear more reluctant to endorse mask wearing unless she advised against wearing them altogether — which was, famously, her original position. On Wednesday, she unveiled a four-bulletpoint plan for getting safely back to semi-normal under the moniker “out smart.” The word “masks” does not appear. Supplementary text only concedes they “can be used … when you can’t maintain physical distance of two metres.”
This is a strange qualification: The official federal advice stresses you shouldn’t touch your mask except to take it off at home and immediately wash your hands. You shouldn’t be taking it on and off while you’re out and about, when social distancing suddenly becomes impossible. But it’s not as strange as the qualification Tam offered on her Twitter account, where she offered a link to an instructional video but only “if it is safe for you to wear a non-medical mask or face covering (not everyone can).”
It is true that some people with asthma or severe allergies have trouble wearing masks. Presumably they know who they are, and would not risk suffocating themselves when mask-wearing isn’t even strongly recommended, let alone mandatory. Blind people will struggle to keep two metres’ distance from others. People with aquagenic urticaria can’t wash their hands with water. People without arms can’t cough into their sleeves. Those “out smart” recommendations aren’t qualified, because that would be silly — as is the qualification on masks.
I would be lying if I said I had any idea what the hell is going on. But this never-ending weirdness is doing us a favour, in a way. The fact is, we have been paying far too much attention to the feds throughout this ordeal. Canada’s COVID-19 experience was always much too different from region to region to justify everyone taking their cues from a single public health agency — let alone one that comprehensively botched something as simple as issuing self-isolation advice to returning foreign travellers.
Canada is a federation by design, not by accident, and thank goodness for that: Far better that most provinces’ authorities did a good job knocking down COVID-19 than that a single one screwed it up for the whole country. It’s something Liberals and New Democrats should bear in mind next time they find themselves demanding yet another “national strategy” in a provincial jurisdiction.
ENCOURAGING TOURISM MAKES NO SENSE AT ALL.