Over two dozen leaders of small towns along the central and northern coast of British Columbia, Canada, are urging the provincial government to restrict non-essential travel as warming weather beckons a surge of unwanted tourists.
Despite countless pleas for visitors to stay away from remote and First Nation communities that are especially vulnerable to novel coronavirus and have limited medical resources, residents say they are seeing no visible effort to restrict non-essential travel, as outsiders continue to arrive by car, ferry and plane.
B.C. recently added hunting and fishing to the province’s list of essential services seemingly ignoring the request of coastal leaders that provincial and federal governments step in to limit outside travel for fishing, hunting and other leisure activities.
COVID-19 is an unprecedented threat to the survival of all citizens, the open letter from April 6 states. We have a short window of opportunity to work together to limit the introduction of COVID-19 into our coastal and island communities.
The letter added that requests for people to voluntarily stay away from remote areas are likely to fall on deaf ears as people seek escape from their urban environments.
People think things are going good and that life will get back to normal, Jason Alsop (Gaagwiis), elected president of the Haida Nation, told The Narwhal.
So then we’ll face that traffic and pressure on our communities’ resources, and obviously potential new [COVID-19] carriers coming here.
We’re all staying in, we’re all following the rules here. We’re all making the sacrifices and we expect others to do the same, so it’s not really fair to be coming here and having a vacation or having a good time.
An online petition addressed to both governments is also circulating online, having gathered more than 3,000 signatures already.