Sunshine Coast politicians are considering whether to push for travel restrictions before the Victoria Day long weekend after a larger than expected number of visitors to the Coast last weekend.
Busy BC Ferries sailings April 9 and 10 prompted a social media backlash from residents claiming the ferry traffic was mainly tourists and vacation property owners acting against the advice of B.C.’s public health officials.
Signs like “The Coast is closed – tourists go home,” “If you don’t live here go home” and “Turn around. Go back home now,” greeted drivers headed up the Langdale bypass.
There were also reports of people leaving notes on cars and, in at least one instance shared on social media, at a Gibsons-area home that read: “We are a vacation rental that puts the local community at risk. We are self-serving and ignorant.”
And some Pender Harbour residents staged a protest near the IGA grocery store in Madeira Park.
BC Ferries says the number of travellers was significantly down from the Easter long weekend in 2019, given that it has cut passenger capacity in half as a result of a Transport Canada order. Deborah Marshall of BC Ferries said the C-Class ferries that serve the Langdale-Horseshoe Bay route normally carry a maximum of 1,460 passengers and crew and the most they can sail with under the new regulations is 730.
Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said during her April 11 briefing that public health officials believe most people have been following the advice against non-essential travel and that she talked with BC Ferries about “the perhaps more overblown reports that are out there” and confirmed that ferry traffic remains well below what it usually is at this time of year.
She rejected the idea of ordering travel restrictions.
“I know that most people are doing the right thing, and there are many reasons people might need to travel and some of those are very legitimate reasons,” Henry said. “I don’t believe there is a need for stepped-up enforcement, or lockdowns or any of those types of measures.”
Health Minister Adrian Dix also addressed ferry traffic at the April 13 briefing, the first he’d taken part in since the start of the long weekend.
“I know there’s been a lot of discussion and a lot of frustration in communities about people who may appear at least to be travelling unnecessarily and there’s some concern about that – and undoubtedly there’s cases where that’s the case,” Dix said.
However, he then pointed to numbers from BC Ferries he said show most people are following advice about travel.
In 2019, he said, BC Ferries saw 21,398 passengers on the Langdale-Horseshoe Bay route from the Thursday to Sunday of the Easter long weekend, while there were 3,911 over the same period this year.
In an April 10 video message, Sechelt Mayor Darnelda Siegers said, “I am very disappointed that despite consistent messaging from the province, Sunshine Coast Tourism, and the emergency operations centre here in Sechelt, people are not staying home… An influx of visitors to our communities up and down the Sunshine Coast is a stress that those on the front line and rest of us do not need right now. It heightens the risk for all of us. ”
Siegers told Coast Reporter on Monday that while Henry and BC Ferries have been talking about Friday, Saturday and Sunday, “the community has been looking at Thursday and the impact on our stores and the travel that’s been going up and down the Coast.”
Siegers said she thinks the community will be looking for tighter travel restrictions by the long weekend in May, and she’s concerned the message coming from the province right now is that they saw nothing wrong with the Easter weekend travel.
“If the perception is that the travel that did happen is OK, what is that message that’s getting out to those who did the travel and those who didn’t and what are we going to see in the future?” she said.
Siegers also pointed out in a Facebook post on the weekend that neither the local governments nor BC Ferries has the authority to stop people from travelling without a provincial order banning non-essential travel and suggested local residents contact Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix. “They are the only ones who can change this.”
Gibsons Mayor Bill Beamish said while the number of travellers is one part of the concern, the other is the anxiety they caused in the community, given how well the Coast has been following public health guidelines.
“To have others come over here who are more on a vacation and more relaxed about it is just not appropriate,” Beamish said. “That’s where the level of stress comes from – having people coming over here who do not seem to be taking appropriate precautions and putting people here at risk… The level of anxiety is very high and I understand that.
“I do have a concern about the negativity, in terms of signage and some statements that were made,” Beamish also said. “I would like to address that.”
Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) chair Lori Pratt said she shares that concern.
“Part of this that’s really hard to watch as local governments is the anger and the fear in the community about having the additional travellers,” Pratt said.
On the question of imposing enforceable travel restrictions, Pratt said she doesn’t think we’re at that point yet, but the situation should be monitored. “If there’s an outbreak now, five, seven, 10, 14 days after this then we know that we do need to enforce a bigger ban.”
Pratt said her personal preference would be for a strategy similar to the checkpoint set up on the highway to Tofino and Ucluelet, where RCMP and Parks Canada officials stopped drivers to pass on the message that travel is discouraged.
Powell River-Sunshine Coast MLA Nicholas Simons took to Twitter April 10, writing: “For weeks Dr. Henry has said don't travel if it’s not essential. Yesterday ferries to the Sunshine Coast were full of people who deserve to live in a dictatorship. The rest of us respect seniors, health care workers and each other.”
Simons said Monday that he’s asked local governments and First Nations in the riding as well as the Islands Trust for their input.
“First we’re looking at the numbers, and trying to figure out the scope of the problem, beyond the truism that every non-essential traveller was one too many,” Simons said in an email to Coast Reporter. “Then we’re talking about all options; what is legal, what is feasible, what is helpful, what will work.”
