Northern mayors want lockdown to end for smaller towns in Porcupine area
Mayors of towns along the Highway 11 corridor in the Porcupine region agree that lockdowns are the right move for COVID hot spot areas.
But Hearst Mayor Roger Sigouin said his town is not one of those places.
With most positive cases in the health unit area located in Timmins and the far north, he and other local leaders said communities with far fewer cases should be able to reopen with the rest of the province.
"Yes, I would like to see Hearst open, Kapuskasing open," Sigouin said. "People made an effort to come to normal as fast as we can ... and we have to keep closed for another two weeks? That's a slap in the face for us."
Kapuskasing Mayor Dave Plourde said while a province-wide lockdown encourages people to stay in their own communities, being the only region in Ontario in lockdown could be counterproductive.
He points to Toronto being locked down while surrounding cities stayed open as a prime example, with the Delta variant bringing added danger.
"If the goods and services aren't provided within your own community and you require it, you're going to go (elsewhere)," Plourde said. "And that's our fear, really, that the variant will be brought back to our own community."
Plourde sent a letter to the Porcupine Health Unit's medical officer of health, Dr. Lianne Catton, asking for a hyper-local lockdown framework that would have different zones within the health unit area.
His idea would function similar to the province's colour-coded system that allowed each health unit to change restrictions based on their case counts.
In this case, Plourde wants the Porcupine Health Unit area divided into zones that the health unit can focus on individually, rather than imposing restrictions on the whole region.
He said the zones could be those that the health unit already uses when reporting COVID. Plourde said it would be a more equitable system that would allow communities to recover, without being punished for case spikes elsewhere in the region.
Plourde said he has not heard back from Catton and CTV reached out to her for comment and also did not hear back.
When Hearst experienced a spike in COVID cases in November of last year, Catton did tell CTV she was considering a hyper-local approach to lockdown restrictions.
Meanwhile, other mayors like Mattice-Val Cote's said this is not a time for division, and that people would just as likely drive to his community if it reopened. He added that slacking on public health measures will simply cause cases to spike again.
Doesn't want conflict
"The day that you think you don't have any cases, that's the day that the cases come out," Marc Dupuis said.
"If you open the rest of the area, people will drive in."
Sigouin said he doesn't want to spark conflict in the region and agrees it is important for communities to work together. But he wonders if the health unit would keep Timmins locked down if roles were reversed.
For Plourde, he said after his community's tragic ordeal with case surges and COVID deaths at Extendicare Kapuskasing, his request is not being made lightly.
He said with a hyper-local lockdown system, changes could still be made quickly if cases spike in a particular area, while still allowing the rest of the region to recover.
Either way, he said it is still up to people in those communities to act responsibly and ensure that the virus does not spread even further.
"I can speak from experience, I do not want to go through this again."
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'Still so much love between us,' Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
What to know about avian influenza in dairy cows and the risk to humans
Why is H5N1, or bird flu, a concern, how does it spread, and is there a vaccine? Here are the answers to some frequently asked questions about avian influenza.
'I was scared': Ontario man's car repossessed after missing two repair loan payments
An Ontario man who took out a loan to pay for auto repairs said his car was repossessed after he missed two payments.
opinion The special relationship between King Charles and the Princess of Wales
Royal commentator Afua Hagan writes that when King Charles recently admitted Catherine to the Order of the Companions of Honour, it not only made history, but it reinforced the strong bond between the King and his beloved daughter-in-law.
Pro-plastic lobbyist presence at UN talks is 'troubling,' say advocates
Environmentalist groups are sounding the alarm about a steep increase in the number of pro-plastic lobbyists at the UN pollution talks taking place this week.
'Too young to have breast cancer': Rates among young Canadian women rising
Breast cancer rates are rising in Canada among women in their 20s, 30s and 40s, according to research by the University of Ottawa (uOttawa).
Charlie Woods, son of Tiger, shoots 81 in U.S. Open qualifier
Charlie Woods failed to advance in a U.S. Open local qualifying event Thursday, shooting a 9-over 81 at Legacy Golf & Tennis Club.
$70M Lotto Max winners kept prize a secret from family for 2 months
During a special winner celebration near their hometown, Doug and Enid shared the story of how they discovered they were holding a Lotto Max ticket worth $70 million and how they kept this huge secret for so long.
Courteney Cox says her partner Johnny McDaid once broke up with her in therapy
Courteney Cox's longtime partner Johnny McDaid once broke up with her in a therapy session.