The red line marks the southern edge of the Northern Saskatchewan Administration District, all of which is under COVID-19 lockdown. Some seasonal visitors to resorts north of Candle Lake say it's unfair they can't go there when the outbreak in La Loche is so far away. (planningforgrowthnorthsk.com)

By Glenn Hicks

red line

Complaints about ‘arbitrary’ nature of lockdown boundary

May 12, 2020 | 8:00 AM

There’s increasing frustration for some people who are unable to get to communities for leisure purposes within the large Northern Saskatchewan Administration District (NSAD), which is currently under provincial lockdown to combat the spread of COVID-19.

As the weather warms, campers and cabin owners want access to places like Whiteswan Lake, north of Candle Lake, but they’re frustrated it falls just within the boundaries of the NSAD. Unless their primary residence is there they can’t go. And residents can only leave for essential purposes. However, many don’t don’t consider their travel there as a health threat, when the main coronavirus outbreak is in the far north west around La Loche.

“We’re only seven kilometres [inside] that magical red line [on the map] but in my opinion we’re 700 kilometres from the actual outbreak,” Kelly Lungull, a Saskatoon-based seasonal site renter at Whelan Bay told paNOW. “You want to do your bit to prevent the COVID spread and I think by going to these [small] camp sites you’re not encouraging a COVID spread …we’re doing it responsibly.”

Lungull said it doesn’t seem fair that not far to the south, Candle Lake, which is a much bigger community, is not subject to the lockdown and yet people like him are paying fees for a site that may not be accessible this summer.

Dan Websdale is another seasonal visitor who is frustrated about not being able to visit his summer getaway.

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“Candle Lake, just down the road is okay, but to get to Whiteswan you don’t have to go through any other communities, you just turn off the road and you come to us,” he said. “ When you look at the whole north, we’re just one of several lake communities on that road and this is going to kill some of these businesses because they count on all these hunters and fisherman being up there.”

Cabin owner Carol Hogan is now retired and has been going to Whiteswan Lake for 45 years. She spends about six months there each year. She thinks it’s unfair the province has locked down everyone inside the NSAD boundary.

“We’re not being able to use our own property, we’ve been paying taxes long enough up there,” she said. “There’s no indication as to when we will have access. We can’t do anything until who knows when. I just wish someone would look at the map, take a look at how far we are from these other areas with a COVID issue. The line they’re using is arbitrary.”

Rod Bell, is the president of the Whelan Bay Cottagers Association, and says it’s unacceptable to treat the entire north as if it was one group all in the same circumstance.

“We don’t feel we have the same concerns or risks in our community and we are absolutely able to social distance,” he said. “We want to enjoy our properties, and particularly as a place of solitude [at a time of] significant stress….many people just want to be able to go to their place to quarantine themselves but they’re not allowed to do that.”

paNOW asked the province’s chief medical health officer Dr. Saqib Shahab what would have to change to start relaxing the lockdown across the NSAD.

He said the lockdown was imposed at the request of the northern leaders in their initial attempts to “calm things down” across inter-dependent geographies and traffic corridors.

“We need to get on top of the northern clusters and understand the transmission dynamics,” he said. “I think northern leaders have learned a lot about what works when there’s an outbreak …once there’s a better understanding of all the factors, that will be a sign of cautiously relaxing some of the restrictions over the summer.”

glenn.hicks@jpbg.ca

On Twitter:@princealbertnow