Nova Scotia restricts inbound traffic
Provincial officials questioning motorists at Fort Lawrence entrance
AMHERST, N.S. — Crossing from Nova Scotia into New Brunswick is something many people take for granted.
That is until an emergency such as the current COVID-19 crisis that led the Nova Scotia government to declare a state of emergency in the province on March 22 and place controls on traffic entering by highway, air and sea.
“It’s not something I ever expected to see,” Amherst resident Andrew Wallis told SaltWire Network. “Going to work or coming home from work is something you can take for granted, but it’s understandable why the government is doing what it’s doing. It has to be done.”
Wallis works for the Correctional Service of Canada at its minimum-security institution in Dorchester.
He’s one of several dozen people living on the Nova Scotia side of the border who commute daily to jobs in Sackville, Dorchester, Moncton or Port Elgin. The same is true for people who live on the New Brunswick side, travelling to jobs in Amherst, Oxford, Springhill and elsewhere.
All that changed last Monday when Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal placed barricades at the Nova Scotia border, shutting Exit 1 to the Nova Scotia Visitor Information Centre and directing all traffic into the inbound weigh station at Fort Lawrence, where motorists were questioned by provincial officials.
Anyone entering the province is being told to self-isolate for 14 days. Exemptions for cross-border travel include healthy workers in trades and transportation sectors who move goods, healthy people going to work and people travelling into the province for essential services.
Cpl. Jennifer Clarke of the RCMP said officers were at the border to assist provincial officials.
She does not believe this will impact enforcement elsewhere. Wallis said he expects it will take extra time to get back and forth to work in Dorchester, but he’s prepared.
“I’ll have to prepare to go earlier knowing there will be lineups and checkpoints,” he said, adding he expects the New Brunswick border to be controlled as well. “There’s going to be a lot of uncertainty because no one really knows how this is going to go. There may be a situation where you can see your town but can’t get to it. Hopefully that doesn't happen. We’re sort of in unchartered territory.”
Wallis knows as an essential worker he won’t have an issue, but will take extra things with him in case he can’t return or gets turned back.
Jay Burke, who has worked in Moncton for 14 years, recently collected what he needs to work from home.
He noticed quite a bit of traffic on the road, more than he usually sees.
Burke said he has previously worked from home during times of bad weather, but never because of a virus. He understands the decision and supports it.
Michele LeBlanc is one of at least two dozen kidney patients who must travel to Moncton three to four times a week for life-saving dialysis. She was never concerned about being inconvenienced.
“There has always been good co-operation between
New Brunswick and Nova Scotia and I’m glad to see the Nova Scotia government has made arrangements for those with medical appointments or for dialysis or chemotherapy,” she said.
She said she has a ticket she uses for parking in Moncton that she can show why she was in Moncton. She’s hoping the dialysis unit will provide a letter for her and other patients.
“It’s life or death. We’re looking at 10 to 12 days if we don’t get our dialysis treatment,” she said. “We can miss one appointment, like on a Wednesday, but you have to have the others.”
She estimates there are at least 20 kidney patients travelling between the Amherst area and Moncton.
Her biggest concern is if New Brunswick begins running out of bed space as the impact of the virus increases. She is unsure where they will go for dialysis if that occurs.
Jillian Gallant normally travels across the border each day to work at a veterinary hospital in Sackville. She and another chose not to go to work last Monday because they were uncertain whether they’d be able to get back home, or whether they’d be told to self-isolate.
As of press time, she said, their wages are being covered by their employer.