Ford cautions against cottaging free-for-all this Victoria Day
‘ There will be plenty of long weekends’
Fear and feuding over an influx of cottage owners from Ontario cities with high COVID-19 caseloads to rural wooded and lakefront communities, expected in earnest starting Victoria Day, sparked a call for caution from Ontario Premier Doug Ford but not the ban many cottage country mayors had hoped for.
“Cottage country residents are known for their hospitality and normally they would be welcoming tourists with open arms right now,” Ford said Thursday after speaking with cottage country mayors.
“This year, however, they are asking visitors to help them fight the spread of COVID-19 and hold off travelling to these regions.
“I know Ontarians are eager to enjoy the great outdoors, but there will be plenty of long weekends to come.”
Both sides in the acrimonious debate between seasonal property owners and full- time cottage country residents looked to the premier to rally to their side. Each had reason to expect sympathy.
For most of the pandemic, Ford has been a facts- forward leader carefully listening to medical experts and mounting a firm fight against the spread of the coronavirus.
At his core, however, he was elected as a populist conservative who trumpets business and property rights, championing tailgate parties and March Break trips.
And Ford himself already had visited his own Muskoka lakefront cottage on Easter Sunday, to check on the plumbing.
Almost 100 mayors or deputy mayors of cottage country municipalities in Ontario took part in a conference call with the premier Wednesday afternoon.
Most, if not all, have concerns of visitors from large cities bringing the coronavirus into their small, rural communities that have little health- care infrastructure. Some fear cottagers will drain the limited resources, such as food, or crowd small businesses beyond their capacity to enforce physical distancing.
There are significant differences between cottage- country communities, bringing some nuance to the broad issue of travel, tourism and seasonal property during a pandemic.
Some regions such as Brockton, 190 kilometres northwest of Toronto, have just eight per cent of its property owned by seasonal residents while Muskoka, where wooded lakefront mansion- cottages are 200 kilometres due north of the city, has 80 per cent seasonal property ownership.
Some beach communities, such as Sauble Beach, Wasaga Beach and Port Dover, have more concerns with transient tourists visiting the beach.
Ford acknowledged that diversity, Thursday.
“While Ontario is vast and regions are facing the challenges of COVID-19 differently, it is more important than ever that we stick together and fight COVID-19 as one team,” he said.
Previously, Ford said a ban wouldn’t work because “people aren’t going to listen” and will go to their cottages regardless. His message on Tuesday to cottage country was: “Be prepared, people are coming up on May the 24th.”
After his talk with the mayors, his message seemed sterner against travel.
“With the Victoria Day long weekend and cottage season just around the corner, we need to stay vigilant. We are still battling a terrible virus, so we are asking seasonal residents travelling to their cottages to practise the same public- health measures as usual, including no public gatherings, avoiding non-essential travel as much as possible, and continue to practice social distancing.”
Phil Harding, mayor of Muskoka Lakes Township, who grew up summering in Muskoka before settling in the area full- time, said he knows how divisive the issue is and has had harsh feedback from all sides.
He wants visitors and tourists to stay away — but doesn’t consider seasonal property owners visitors; they’re residents and he wants all residents, yearround or seasonal, to be able to attend their property.
“We’re really not open to tourism,” Harding said. “But the locals need the seasonal residents to survive. We need to work as one and respect each other.”
He urged residents to not consider this a typical Victoria Day long weekend and to limit their exposure: “Don’t think of it as a holiday weekend. It’s an isolation weekend.”
Kristal Chopp — mayor of Norfolk County, which stretches along part of the Lake Erie waterfront — also was on the call with Ford. The medical officer of health for Norfolk and neighbouring Haldimand County earlier issued a sweeping emergency health order banning seasonal owners from occupying their property during the COVID- 19 emergency, backed up by the threat of daily fines of up to $5,000.
Although the province recommended against the order, it remains in place.
On Thursday afternoon, cottage owners in the Long Point Ratepayers’ Association filed an appeal of the counties’ order.
Chopp had hoped for a stronger provincewide response from Ford.
She said Ford “dialed back” from previous comments suggesting Victoria Day could proceed as usual and said he seemed to listen to their concerns. It is now up to people to heed Ford’s plea to maintain physical distance and anti- transmission practices.
“Whether or not people listen will be the question, and I was not the only one that expressed concerns with enforcement, but he did say he would be willing to work with us,” Chopp said.
The premier’s office confirmed to the National Post that Ford drove to his family’s cottage in Muskoka on Easter Sunday to check on the property and its plumbing after the winter.
He did not socialize or stay overnight, his office said. The cottage has been undergoing extensive renovations that have been delayed by the pandemic and Ford’s inability to travel while handing the emergency.
Over Easter, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau crossed from Ottawa into Quebec to visit his wife and three children at Harrington Lake, the official country home of the prime minister.
Trudeau was criticized for leaving on the trip shortly after his public address telling Canadians not to travel over the holiday.
“This long weekend, we all have to stay at home. We can’t get together for dinner,” Trudeau said on Good Friday. Over the Easter weekend, however, his wife, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, posted a cheerful photo on social media of the family out together.
We need to work as one and respect each other.