Like many of you, I am deeply troubled by the reports of large numbers of travelers making their way to Vancouver Island this weekend via BC Ferries. I have voiced my concerns to the Prime Minister, the Premier, as well as federal and provincial ministers whose areas of responsibility are directly relevant to this issue. Here is what I wrote:
Dear Prime Minister Trudeau and Premier Horgan
As BC Ferries fill up with travelers heading to Vancouver Island this long weekend it is clear that too many people are ignoring the directive from both levels of government to stay at home. There can be no justification for a rise in ferry ridership during a long weekend in a public health emergency. This can no longer just be a request for people to stay home. The government needs to restrict travel and enforce that restriction.
BC Ferries is following the rules set out by the federal government. They do not have the authority to stop people from getting on the ferries unless they report symptoms for COVID-19.
We need the federal and provincial governments to respond to this situation immediately. Of the 1,370 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in B.C. on April 9th, only 82 were in the Island Health region. 508 were in the Fraser Health region and 626 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region. Vancouver Island has one of the oldest and most vulnerable populations in Canada. Vancouver Islanders have done a great job of following the instructions of our health authorities and are flattening the curve. Gulf Island elected representatives and community leaders have asked non-islanders to stay away. The small communities on the Gulf Islands and Vancouver Island do not have the health care resources to deal with an outbreak of COVID-19.
We need our communities to be protected. The Nanaimo Regional General Hospital in my riding serves the oldest demographic per capita in Canada, and health care workers lack the proper Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to deal with an outbreak.
Please order BC ferries to restrict all non-essential travel on all routes effective immediately.
Thank you for your time and attention to this urgent matter.
Sincerely
Paul Manly
Living on Quadra I have to go to Campbell River for supplies. In CR I can get a can of friskies for 50cents, here on Quadra it is $1.20. I have 4 cats. Change the language on this so we are not locked down on an island with overpriced grocery stores
What the government is waiting for, I can't imagine.....more cases, more deaths?......only vehicles bringing provisions/essential goods should be on the ferries........and airplanes should not be flying - taking passengers back and forth......there should be restrictions and fines enforced across the province, across the country.......we can't do it ourselves, we are counting on our government, both Provincial and Federal.....there are deluded and uninformed and sadly, stupid people that put us at risk.....I have been isolating along with my entire family for a month.....we have not seen each other.....not that we have been sick but to flatten the curve and to do everything possible to defeat this virus....it has been one of the most difficult things we have ever done.......
BC Ferries are mandated now to operate at 50% capacity. They also have very reduced sailings. On one "full" sailing there were 408 passengers on a capacity of 2100. Get the facts straight. Plus some of these were delivery trucks. There is no need for alarmist pr.
Thank you Paul Manly ... John Horgan and Justin Trudeau have not stepped up to limiting non essential travel to the island. They have only been 'urging' people to avoid non essential travel and giving fine speeches but have done very little to help what is happening this long weekend. We certainly don't want to see another influx of visitor to the island on the long weekends in May and July. Unless people have an address here on the island, they should not be here. The only essential reason to travel is if they are truckers bringing goods, workers and students returning home, medical or compassionate reasons. Many people say they have vacation homes here ... but it still …
I live in Vancouver, but the rest of my family (dad who is 72, brother, and aunt who was recently diagnosed with cancer) live in Nanaimo. My grandma passed away 2 weeks ago (from being the old age of 97 and suffering a stroke, not Covid-19), in Nanaimo. I would love to go visit my family to support them after my grandmas passing (who I didn't even travel to visit before she had passed because I didn't want to potentially put my other family members at risk!). So I have been good and stayed at home. And yet there are selfish people flocking to the Island to have fun in the sun?! I am royally pissed off and agree someth…