Yesterday, Premier John Horgan announced that restrictions on travel within British Columbia will be loosened, with Phase Three of the Restart BC program now allowing for travel within the province, a move that will offer some hope for some parts of the hard hit tourism sector.
However, while the provincial government may be allowing for travel, many communities on Haida Gwaii, the Central Coast and locations of many other First Nations have held to their own restrictions, advising that their areas are still Closed to non residential visitors.
The request for visitors to Stay home is being led by the Heiltsuk Tribal Council which yesterday outlined its latest thoughts on the issue of travel into their territory.
In their information release of June 24, the coalition of Indigenous communities outlined how the failure of the province to provide adequate COVID-19 Safety measures in place has put Indigenous lives at risk.
“While the government moves to open the entire province to travel and tourism, we are still waiting for basic safety measures and information sharing. This means we cannot make informed decisions about the level or type of emergency measures to enact, and so the safest approach becomes blanket travel bans.” -- Marilyn Slett, Chief Councillor of the Heiltsuk Nation.
Yesterday's overview relayed some of the work towards enforcing their local restrictions, which has seen the Heiltsuk, Tsilhqot’in National Government and Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council all enact various travel advisories, bans and checkpoints during the pandemic.
More recently, the Nuu-chah-nulth announced plans to restrict entry to most of Vancouver Island’s west coast until COVID-19 safety conditions are met, a position the other leaders support.
Until the leadership receives assurances from the provincial government towards their concerns, the coalition of communities will also take the following measures.
COVID-19 Information Sharing – to ensure early reporting of suspected and confirmed cases to Indigenous governments in nearby regions.
Screening non-residents to ensure travellers are not symptomatic or infected with the virus.
Rapid testing based on provincial health guidelines and prioritizing Indigenous and remote communities (there are only two rapid testing kits for all Indigenous communities in BC).
Culturally-safe contact tracing teams, staffed by community members and supported with funding and training from BC, to keep communities safe with preventative tracing.
The full information package from the Heiltsuk can be reviewed here.
Earlier this week we made note of the latest update from the Council of Haida Nation, which included a video address from Gaagwiis the President of the Haida Nation.
More on their concerns and plans for the weeks and months ahead can be reviewed from the CHN Facebook page and website.
Also this week, North Coast MLA Jennifer Rice, who represents many of the communities expressing concerns this week, spoke to the issues related to travel and the work ahead towards finding solutions.
Her comments to the Legislature can be reviewed below:
For more notes on Tourism across the Northwest see our archive page here.
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