File Photo (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By James Peters

Stay Home

Shuswap-area officials plead with cabin owners: stay home this long weekend

Apr 8, 2020 | 4:46 PM

SALMON ARM, B.C. — As the first long weekend of spring approaches, residents of the Shuswap are concerned that the call of the lake will drown out the call of this country’s health officials.

Wednesday (Apr. 8), the Columbia-Shuswap Regional District (CSRD) issued a news release asking people not to travel to recreational properties this weekend, as provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry has told British Columbians to remain home.

Health officials are worried that an influx in population and an explosion of COVID-19 symptoms could overwhelm the medical infrastructure in small communities.

Alberta residents have already been spotted setting up in the Shuswap.

“We have deep and historic ties. But this is not the time for people from British Columbia to visit Alberta – for all of the reasons to visit Alberta. It’s not the time for people from Alberta to visit British Columbia,” said Health Minister Adrian Dix in his daily address to the province. “It’s not the time to be travelling to second homes. This is the time when all of us need to flatten the curve.”

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Dix says he discussed interprovincial travel today with his Alberta counterpart, Tyler Shandro.

CSRD Board Chair Kevin Flynn says he doesn’t want to see the provincial border closed but this is a serious problem.

“Honestly, I cannot imagine a Canada with provincial borders closed, personally,” Flynn told CFJC Today. “Although I am concerned there may be some more Alberta plates showing up, I would hope, if people have made the decision to travel and it’s non-essential travel, that they follow all social distancing and all guidelines in place to protect everybody.”

“Travel and border closures and things like that are not in our jurisdiction,” he continued. “The provinces have not gone there; I hope they never do. I would hope people are respecting the requests of the health minister and Dr. Bonnie Henry.”

Albertans make up a large portion of those with secondary residences around Shuswap Lake, though Flynn acknowledges there are plenty of cabin owners who live in Kamloops and the Lower Mainland as well.

Many use Easter long weekend and the May long weekend to open up their second homes after a long winter. Flynn says this year will have to be different.

“People are wanting to open up cabins. I have a place on the lake that I wanted to go visit this weekend but I’m a lease-holder at a First Nations site and they asked us to stay home and not put their security people or anything in jeopardy.”

The CSRD has already closed playground equipment and vault toilets. On Wednesday, the NDP government announced the immediate closure of all provincial parks.

Flynn says CSRD officials will continue to monitor the situation at the region’s many recreational sites to determine if more measures are necessary.

“You’d have to be living in a bubble with no media access to not know what Dr. Bonnie Henry is saying, what the province is saying, what the federal government is saying and what every provincial health minister is saying – stay at home.”