Blanc-Sablon protesters putting travel proposal together, in hopes of freer visits to N.L.
Quebecers asked to submit request to N.L.'s chief medical officer of health
The Quebec residents who delayed ferry crossings at Blanc-Sablon last week in an effort to draw attention to their problems with interprovincial travel restrictions have been asked to try a more bureaucratic tactic to resolve the issue.
The protesters from Quebec's Lower North Shore, along with Blanc-Sablon's mayor and other provincial representatives, met with Premier Dwight Ball and a similar delegation from Newfoundland and Labrador via phone call Monday to try reaching a resolution.
"We had a very cordial meeting, a positive meeting. We appreciate those folks," said Cartwright-L'Anse au Clair MHA Lisa Dempster, who was also on the call.
The protesters are upset that, as residents of Quebec, they have been denied the ability to travel freely throughout Newfoundland and Labrador. They were granted the ability to cross the border to southern Labrador in June, but say as they're geographically isolated from the rest of Quebec, their main connection to shopping, leisure and many relatives is with all of N.L.
Monday's meeting ended with a request.
"Before they come in to Newfoundland and Labrador … we need a proposal into the chief medical officer to see what their travel plans [are], where they would go, what they want to do, if they come to our province," Ball told CBC News.
Dr. Janice Fitzgerald gets to make the final call on the issue, said Dempster.
"She will consider these options, she will make her decisions based on science and epidemiology," Dempster said.
Mounting frustrations
Dempster said the last few days along the southern Labrador-Quebec border have been tense ones, as ferry runs across the Strait of Belle Isle between St. Barbe, N.L., and Blanc-Sablon were delayed on Thursday and Friday and her constituents vented to her about trying to travel with young children or reach medical appointments.
"It was not a pleasant situation last week," she told CBC Radio's Labrador Morning.
"The frustration was mounting."
Dempster said officials on her side of the border agreed to meet with the Quebec contingent, but only if they dropped their protest. If that appeal hadn't worked, she said the province had mulled over other enforcement options, such as bringing back border checkpoints.
"Folks need not kid themselves, we did have options," she said.
Dempster said the decision to allow free travel between southern Labrador and the Lower North Shore was not one made lightly back in June, with Fitzgerald allowing it — as well as a similar travel exemption on the Labrador West-Quebec border — because of the small population involved.
"She made very careful, calculated decisions at that time," said Dempster.
"You're discussing very small numbers on either side. Should COVID-19 come in and somebody test positive, contact tracing would be simpler."
Since the pandemic reached Canada, there have been no known cases of COVID-19 on Quebec's Lower North Shore. The area is not connected via road to the rest of Quebec, although there is flight access.
Quebec does not have any interprovincial travel restrictions akin to Newfoundland and Labrador, where only residents of Atlantic Canada may travel within the region without a travel exemption and a requirement to self-isolate for 14 days upon arrival.
With files from Labrador Morning