Some would-be tourists turn around at ‘check point’ near Tofino
Posted April 11, 2020 9:42 pm.
Last Updated April 11, 2020 11:06 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TOFINO (NEWS 1130) – A popular tourist destination on Vancouver Island has stepped up the messaging about the need to stay home this long weekend.
A road-block, of sorts, was set up outside of Tofino, just after the junction between it and Ucluelet.
The town’s mayor says the ‘information station’ was erected Thursday and Friday, in anticipation of visitors arriving for the long weekend.
Josie Osborne says it was manned by the RCMP and Parks Canada wardens, and they stopped drivers to ask where they were coming from and where they were going.
Most of them, she says, were legitimate residents.
“But there were a handful of second-home owners who were coming out to see their properties, as well as true tourists, people literally out for a drive or planning to come out for the weekend,” she notes.
The officers, she says, then carefully explained the situation.
“So they spoke to those people, and explained the context and told them that all the parks were closed – the national and the provincial parks were closed. All the accommodation operators are closed. And they actually convinced quite a few of them to turn around.”
She points out the officers have no legal authority to stop people from entering the town, and luckily the travellers didn’t put up a fight.
“Many of the drivers they spoke to who intended to come out for the weekend – I don’t think they were wilfully defiant. They were maybe not understanding the severity or the gravity of the situation.”
Will more information stations be erected in the foreseeable future?
“The RCMP says they could do it again this weekend, as resources permitted. But this weekend is a bit of a litmus test for us. The May long weekend is coming up. Depending on our success this weekend, it will inform what we might push for from the province going forward,” says the mayor.
She says she hopes a ‘stay-at-home’ order won’t be needed, and that people, for the most part, follow advice put forward by public health officials.
