Premier John Horgan says he will consider a request by mayors to restrict ferry travel to 91原创 Island on the May long weekend, but he hopes such measures won鈥檛 be necessary by then.
Horgan said he鈥檚 aware of the mayors鈥� concerns about people making non-essential trips to the island at Easter, and potentially spreading COVID-19.
鈥淚 am an Islander born and raised,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 appreciate those concerns and we鈥檒l be looking at it very closely.
鈥淏ut the May long weekend is 1,000 years away, as far as I鈥檓 concerned, based on my daily schedule, and as we get closer to the May long weekend, I鈥檓 hopeful that we will have a whole bunch of positive initiatives in communities that will put the ferry issue to one side.鈥�
North Cowichan Mayor Al Siebring got more than 20 mayors from the Island, as well as the chairs of regional districts, to sign a letter, calling on the province to do a better job of limiting ferry travel on long weekends.
鈥淚 appreciate that this is on the province鈥檚 radar,鈥� Siebring said Wednesday 鈥淚 appreciate they鈥檙e taking it seriously.鈥�
B.C. Ferries said the number of passengers was down more than 90 per cent on major routes from Thursday to Sunday on the Easter holiday compared with 2019.
鈥淏ut even at a 91 per cent reduction, there were still almost 15,000 bums in the seats on B.C. Ferries on the Easter long weekend,鈥� Siebring said. 鈥淚鈥檓 sorry, but you can鈥檛 tell me that all 15,000 of those were essential.
鈥淭he point is that we need to reduce that number to the essential ones.鈥�
Siebring said the COVID-19 outbreak in Alert Bay illustrates the potential for the virus to arrive by ferry.
鈥淣ot to be alarmist, but that鈥檚 the reality,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e have kind of a unique geographic component here. We have the ability to say: 鈥楽tay out of our area.鈥�
鈥淲e just do it by controlling who comes in and out on the ferries, because that鈥檚 how 90 per cent of the people get here, so why wouldn鈥檛 we take advantage of that?鈥�
In the case of Alert Bay, Horgan said local residents could have brought the virus back to the community from outside.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not just people from away who can contract the virus and then have it spread through communities, it鈥檚 people within communities,鈥� Horgan said.
鈥淪o I鈥檓 reluctant to put restrictions in place for 91原创s travelling, put restrictions in place for British Columbians travelling, beyond what [provincial health officer] Dr. [Bonnie] Henry has already said: 鈥業f you do not need to travel, if your travel is not essential, stay home.鈥�
鈥淎nd I think that if we adhere to those basic principles, we鈥檒l be fine.鈥�
