Sudbury mayor wants to see OPP checkpoints to discourage 'casual travel'

In the wake of recent COVID-19 deaths in Greater Sudbury — and concern about the threat of virus variants — the city's mayor says he's going to ask the province to set up highway checkpoints. 

Brian Bigger says he wants to see "casual travel" stop immediately and is asking residents to "discourage anyone from coming north."

The idea of a northern bubble has been discussed before, with the idea of checkpoints set up by provincial police monitoring travel.

"Quebec implemented such checkpoints as far back as October to stem traffic between regions," Bigger said in a statement.

"It was a visible deterrent and it dissuaded travel ... I will be reaching out to the province again this week to request an action plan that will either stop or stymie traffic flow up Highway 69 unless absolutely necessary and expedite the flow of vaccines to us up here."

It's also an idea put forward by retired emergency room physician Dr. Peter Zalan months ago. He says it's even more urgent now with the extremely contagious variant present as close as Barrie.

"They already have 10 local cases that have tested positive for the COVID-19 variant and they have another 105 cases that have screened positive and they're just waiting further testing. The number of active cases they have down there for a population that's similar to ours is over 1,000."

Zalan says he and others have been petitioning the mayor about creating a northern bubble, and says they're "really excited that he's going to take this action."

He notes that he will be issuing a news release on the topic on Tuesday, along with former Sudbury mayor Jim Gordon.

Slowing road traffic is expected to help, Zalan said, and air traffic could be "something to consider for the future."

He points to the success of the Atlantic bubble as a workable example for northern Ontario.

"That's where we actually got the idea. They started doing this quite a while ago, yesterday they actually did have zero new cases of the virus," he said.

"Also, similar things have happened in Australia and in New Zealand. Both have done an excellent job in controlling infections and getting the economy going."

Zalan says the creation of a northern bubble should have been done months ago.

"And ideally, especially with respect to the new variants, which are so much more infectious. When they were first identified four months ago, that's when we should have blocked international travel," he said.

"So what's done is done. And now we have to do the best we can."

Bigger says he wants to "insulate" Greater Sudbury "for a short amount of time and by any means necessary stop the spread of the COVID-19 variant that is creeping north."

He says he will be canvassing local leaders and authorities to find a way to make the checkpoints happen.

"It may be an inconvenience to some, but worth it if it saves lives and helps our community get closer to safely re-opening," Bigger said.

"The nonessential travel works in two ways. It's attempting to let people know that we're trying to discourage nonessential travel from other parts of the province into our community. As well, Sudburians can do their part and really explain to others, who perhaps would like to travel to Sudbury to visit, that this is not the time. It absolutely is not the time."

The provincial government said Tuesday, however, that it's not considering highway checkpoints as a pandemic measure.

A spokesman for the solicitor general's office said a stay-at-home order issued last month to control COVID-19 infections already discourages non-essential travel.

"Our government and Ontario's medical experts have been clear, people should not be travelling to different parts of the province, and should stay home except for essential reasons," Stephen Warner said in a statement.

Any future measures will be decided upon after consultation with the government's team of expert public health officials, he said.

Public Health Ontario is scaling up testing and tracing for three variants that have emerged in different parts of the world.

Ontario has so far reported 109 confirmed cases of the variant that originated in the U.K., though regional health officials have said they believe the number is higher.

The province on Monday also recorded its first case of a variant that originated in South Africa. The Peel Region resident infected in that case had no known link to travel.