The following letter to the editor was submitted to CollingwoodToday as an open letter to the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit medical officer of health, Dr. Charles Gardner. CollingwoodToday welcomes letters to the editor. They can be submitted to [email protected].
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An open letter to Dr. Gardner,
I am writing once again to voice my concern over the movement of the Collingwood area to a Grey status. Please don’t do the bureaucratic shuffle by saying it’s the province that made this decision. You are on record saying we need to be locked down. While I support the need for areas within the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit (SMDHU) to be locked down, painting us all with the same brush is ludicrous at best, and is a decision with little thought or merit.
In my earlier correspondence, the reply I received (you didn’t have the courage to reply directly but rather put it off to an admin assistant, not best practice), stated things should be uniform and we needed uniformity. The uniformity argument has no merit at all. If things were uniform all areas of the province would be locked down at the same time.
Clearly, the issue of spread control is within the 400 corridor from the Holland Marsh to Barrie. Clearly, the lockdown, needs to be enforced in Barrie, Bradford West Gwillimbury, Innisfil, New Tecumseh, and Essa, those areas in the 400 corridor. Those areas of higher population density, those areas whose population ignore the lockdown.
To be clear, proper enforcement in these communities, not to mention the GTHA need to be done with more diligence. While we all have rights, to a greater degree we all have responsibilities. Just under 23 per cent of the SMDHU take those responsibilities to heart.
Do the right thing, release the areas in compliance and low incidence, and diligently restrict the areas of non-compliance. As a good friend said to me this summer, how hard is it to wear a mask, stand 6 feet apart, wash your hands, and comply with the restrictions?
Sincerely,
Allan Bennett
Collingwood, ON
