BARRHEAD – Campers looking to spend a night or two at one of the County of Barrhead's campgrounds will have to look for alternate accommodations.
That is because on April 21 during their regular meeting councillors voted 5-2 to follow the example of the province and close campgrounds until May 19 in an attempt to stem the spread of coronavirus infections.
Coun. Bill Lane and Coun. Walter Preugschas were opposed.
County manager Debbie Oyarzun said she is recommending the temporary closures to bring them in line with the federal and provincial government restrictions.
The municipality has four outdoor recreational facilities with camping sites including Peanut Lake, Holmes Crossing Recreation Area, Dolberg Lake Campground and Klondike Ferry Park.
She noted that at the same time Alberta's chief medical officer Dr. Deena Hinshaw issued Public Health Order 07-2020 — an order which put in several restrictions such as limiting gatherings to a maximum of 15 people, closing non-essential businesses. The province closed all provincial campgrounds and prohibited all vehicle traffic from provincial parks.
Additionally, Alberta Environment and Parks (AEP) has suspended all visitor services and closed all park facilities including restrooms.
She also noted that Parks Canada closed all its campgrounds, facilities and suspended all visitor services until at least May 31.
The province, through a ministerial order under the Forest and Prairie Protection Act, suspended all fire permits and banned all outdoor fires on public and private lands as well as fireworks in Fire Control Zones 1-46.
"This just touches the most northern part of our county," Oyarzun said.
Under a different ministerial order, but impacting the same area, the province restricted the use of off-highway vehicles on public land.
However, Oyarzun noted since then the province had suspended the OHV ban, with the "understanding that the minister or deputy minister could reinstate the restriction."
She added while the province hasn't mandated that municipalities close their campgrounds they expect that they will follow their lead.
"The provincial message is to stay home to minimize the spread of COVID," she said, reciting an AEP statement. "Now isn't the time to visit our provincial parks or public lands or recreation areas. If you have plans to visit one of these areas cancel them."
Oyarzun noted it isn't the use of the facilities that concerns the province the most but attracting people from outside adjacent communities.
And although camping at private campgrounds is allowed, she said the province's message remains constant.
Alberta Health Sevices (AHS) issued a statement explaining that it “is exploring potential restrictions on recreational camping at private campgrounds or other similar locations and will be providing additional guidance soon. For now, private campgrounds can continue to operate and provide access to the public, as long as they take actions to protect workers, volunteers and patrons from the risk of transmission of infection.”
Some of the guidelines AHS is recommending private campgrounds implement are: that they only provide long-term accommodations, at least four-weeks or where the site is the user's primary accommodation; no tent camping; closure of playgrounds, units must be self-contained, i.e. have its own septic and freshwater systems; close all shared washroom facilities including showers; block off group camping areas, and limit campground capacity for purposes of social distancing.
Reeve Doug Drozd interjected saying the rationale behind allowing private campgrounds is to give snowbirds who have no other accommodation other than an RV a place to stay as well as to house temporary workers.
"Those are the key demographics they are trying to help out because if no campgrounds were available it would be a real hardship," he said.
Drozd added he recently took part in a video teleconference with several rural Alberta municipalities and many of them expressed their concerns about travellers coming into their communities and increasing the risk of COVID-19 infections.
Coun. Bill Lane said urban residents don't seem to be heeding the province's guidelines to restrict unnecessary travel.
"They are coming out on the weekend," he said, giving the example of a family that lives near him. "When they are in the city, they live in different homes with different people."
Coun. Walter Preugschas asked if other municipalities were closing their campgrounds.
"Strathmore, Devon, Drumheller, the list goes on and on, they are all following what the province is doing," Oyarzun said.
Preugschas said while he understood the rationale behind closing campgrounds, he said they were needed to help people with their mental health.
"If we shut down all these places, the ones that are left will be that more crowded and be closer than six feet apart and in groups greater than 15," he said.
Coun. Dennis Nanninga agreed but noted the provincial and federal closures were temporary and that they would be reexamined.
"I think it is a reasonable request by the government to follow their lead," he said. "There will still be a lot of the summer left and if [the COVID-19 situation] improves and things start to open up again, having campgrounds closed for another month isn't necessarily a killer."
Barry Kerton, TownandCountryToday.com
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