Collingwood council is calling on the provincial government to be more ‘forceful’ in their messaging to reduce travel by those living in locked-down regions.
Coun. Kathy Jeffery proposed a motion during Monday night’s council meeting (Dec. 14) calling on the province to be “more vocal and forceful in reducing travel with intention to avoid a COVID zone declaration of grey/lockdown in Collingwood that would have strong and lasting negative impacts on Collingwood’s businesses.”
“This is to… advocate to get (the province) moving on what it is we need to look after our local economies,” said Jeffery.
All of council, except for Coun. Tina Comi, supported the motion.
Collingwood CAO Sonya Skinner said the town is already restricting rentals of its facilities (arenas/pool) by prohibiting those from red and grey lockdown zones (outside of Simcoe-Muskoka) from renting them or taking swim lessons.
“I’m contemplating whether we should continue to allow residents from Wasaga and Clearview,” said Skinner. “That decision hasn’t been fully made.”
Mayor Brian Saunderson said council’s request to the province made Monday night was similar to a motion made during the first wave of COVID-19 at the end of March. At that time, it was again Jeffery who raised the issue. Council was split 5-4 in favour of a resolution asking staff to write the province seeking an Ontario-wide mandate preventing people from travelling into small communities during the pandemic.
He said on both occasions, the messaging goes two ways.
“We are asking our residents and seasonal residents to be in Collingwood if that’s where you’re going to be and not leave Collingwood,” the mayor said during Monday’s council meeting. “It’s not the time to be travelling for day trips.”
Deputy Mayor Keith Hull said social media posts show even Collingwood residents are taking trips for pleasure, and reiterated that council’s message was for Collingwood residents not to travel and people from outside of town not to visit here.
Coun. Mariane McLeod said she was “hesitant” about “unintended consequences” of asking the province to be more forceful in its messaging about travel between zones.
“If I don’t get to go skiing, I’m going to be mad,” said McLeod. “Does this mean we’re asking the province to say we here in Collingwood can’t go skiing?”
Jeffery said the intention of the motion was to avoid lockdown and make sure people are following protocols. She said that wouldn’t preclude people from lockdown zones who have homes here from coming here.
“You can pick us, but you need to quarantine when you get here and stay here,” said Jeffery. “Don’t be running back and forth.”
According to the province’s COVID-19 response framework, “individuals and families in higher transmission areas should avoid travel to lower transmission areas (for example from red to orange, from yellow to green), except for essential reasons.”
The framework also states for those living in red or lockdown zones, trips outside the home should be for essential reasons.
The Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit’s medical officer of health, Dr. Charles Gardner, has gone a step further.
He issued recommendations to municipalities calling on them to restrict people from red and grey zones from using their facilities. At the time, Simcoe-Muskoka District was in the orange zone.
When asked if he would recommend businesses do the same, Gardner said he would, and would have the same advice for ski resorts.
Though it is advice, not a requirement.
“I would imagine that a very large portion of their business would actually be from the GTA,” Gardner said during a media briefing Nov. 24. “The province’s official advice is that residents from grey and red areas not travel.
"Recreational skiing, while a pleasure… is not essential.”
Blue Mountain Resort is within the Grey Bruce Health Unit jurisdiction. The Grey-Bruce medical officer of health Dr. Ian Arra has recommended hockey play and practice be limited to only teams within Grey and Bruce counties and should not include teams from red or lockdown zones.
“As such, facilities should not be providing rentals to teams from those areas that prohibit team sports,” Arra said in a news release.
He has encouraged Grey Bruce residents to stay focused on their own environments and interactions.
“It's easy to say, let's restrict travel from other areas and that's going to keep us safe. Well, as long as each one of us is taking care of our own setting, our own person, our own business – whether people come from a different area or not – it's not as important,” he said, noting that GBHU continues to discourage travel to or from other high-risk regions.
But Simcoe-Muskoka’s Dr. Gardner disagrees and said it absolutely is important to restrict travel.
“The more people you have moving into an area, the greater the probability of things happening, of breaches… of transmission happening,” Gardner said during a media briefing on Dec. 15. “It’s a numbers game. If you have thousands of individuals coming to a place… there’s a bigger risk some of them will let their guard down… the risk of transmission is significant.”
Asked specifically about weekend stays and day trips, Gardner said it shouldn’t be happening from grey and red zones.
“I support the province’s position in its framework that people should not be travelling from higher incidence to lower incidence,” said Gardner. “People should not be doing that kind of travel except for essential reasons.”
He is supportive of Collingwood council’s motion calling for the province to be more vocal and forceful about preventing travel between zones.
"It would be helpful for the province to be very vocal about this, and make it part of their strong messaging with communication supports," said Gardner. "I also believe it would be important for them to do the same thing with regards to the holiday season."
“Some countries have gone as far as to actually prohibit and restrict movement of that nature, but I don’t expect that to happen in Ontario,” said Gardner. “I think it’s contrary to collective values to go that far.”
Gardner said he understands many tourism-based businesses need visitors for their industries to succeed, but warns that kind of travel comes with increased risk of transmission of the coronavirus.
“Including transmission to those who operate these businesses and to their family members,” said Gardner.
— With files from Jennifer Golletz
