Atlantic Travel Bubble (COVID-19)

[q12]

Atlantic travel bubble needed sooner rather than later, says Halifax professor

Premiers still discussing whether to ease provincial border restrictions

CBC News · Posted: Jun 03, 2020 8:57 PM AT | Last Updated: June 3

A Halifax business professor says action needs to be taken on an Atlantic travel bubble so struggling tourism operators hit hard by COVID-19 in Nova Scotia can immediately market themselves to tourists from around the province and region.

"We've got to reallocate quickly here and try to respond as quickly as we can to what's open to us," Lorn Sheehan, a Dalhousie University professor of strategy with a specialty in tourism management and travel, told CBC's Maritime Noon on Wednesday.

With international travel still off limits and cruise ship season cancelled, Sheehan said opening up borders in the region is one of the only options left.

On Friday, businesses such as restaurants, hair salons and gyms will begin to reopen in Nova Scotia, but Sheehan said the tourism and travel industry has taken a major hit that will be especially hard to bounce back from.

"People don't have to travel, they don't have to go to restaurants. So when we see the economy contract, we expect the tourism industry to experience further contraction than average in the economy," he said.

How the travel bubble would work

The travel bubble idea, floated by premiers in New Brunswick and P.E.I. would allow people to cross provincial borders without having to self-isolate for 14 days.

P.E.I. Premier Dennis King suggested the Maritime provinces could reopen to one another as early as July.

Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil said Tuesday that Nova Scotia has yet to decide whether it will bubble with other Maritime provinces, but he said any plans should include Newfoundland and Labrador.

The premier of Newfoundland and Labrador said last week that he's not ready to commit to joining a bubble just yet.

But whether Maritimers will be ready to travel across borders is another question.

While new cases of COVID-19 continue to drop in Nova Scotia, Sheehan said research, largely collected in the U.S., shows consumer sentiment about travel is mixed.

"There are people that are willing to travel right now that would actually get on an airplane right now if that were permitted," he said, adding those people are typically younger.

There are also people at the other end of the spectrum who won't board an airplane even when the government gives the go-ahead, Sheehan said.

Still, months into the pandemic, Sheehan said the economic risk of COVID-19 has now overshadowed the health risk for many people.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-...ehan-1.5597195

[drewber]

PEI and New Brunswick...yes...nova Scotia no. And the premier of Newfoundland has no interest in letting in people who come home every year let alone Taurus from the mainland. Sorry Nova Scotia but I think you're on your own with this one

[Bishop2047]

I would like to see it happen, but mostly for selfish reasons. I have family in NS but live in NB. I do hope the isolation rules are relaxed sooner rather than later. 14 days of isolation for crossing an invisible line is getting pretty old and really isn't stopping much (I travel to the Arctic for work once a month and just want to get out).

Since we are testing everyone why not just test people at the borders or ports of entry at this point.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by drewber

PEI and New Brunswick...yes...nova Scotia no. And the premier of Newfoundland has no interest in letting in people who come home every year let alone Taurus from the mainland. Sorry Nova Scotia but I think you're on your own with this one

Known active covid cases:

NS - 0 (source)
NB - 15 (source)

Bottom line is covid is very rare in every Atlantic province. Since May 29, about 3,500 covid tests have been done in NS and 3 came back positive, all from existing known clusters. The active cases in NB right now came from Quebec. If this continues, it will make very little sense to keep borders within the region closed in July and August. It would also theoretically make sense to redeploy people from the NS-NB border to NB-QC or NB-ME.

[Bishop2047]

Originally Posted by someone123

Known active covid cases:

NS - 0 (source)
NB - 15 (source)

Bottom line is covid is very rare in every Atlantic province. Since May 29, about 3,500 covid tests have been done in NS and 3 came back positive. If this continues, it will make very little sense to keep borders within the region closed in July and August.

There will be spikes and valleys in each province as long as we continue testing, NB and PEI got a little too excited to be getting zeros for so long, but that is not realistic. At some point we are going to open up the borders (interprovincial), and there will be cases in Canada when we do it. Just like everything else (stores, universities, and public spaces) it will look different than before but we will do it, as it is too costly not to. Why not sooner rather than latter.

Fact is the disease just isn't the killer we thought it would be, and we are managing it pretty well. now is up to the politicians to make the tough call, and open up more knowing that there will still be cases and this is not cause to overreact. Politically it is not popular as no one wants to be accused of letting in the disease but it is going to happen and hopefully you can educate the public enough that there is little panic.

[q12]

Atlantic Canada has had no new cases for 2 days straight. You can't find an equivalent area of 2.5 million people in North America that has the same low numbers.

P.E.I will needs tourists from Halifax and the rest of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick if it is going generate any tourism revenue this summer. All of Atlantic Canada suffers if we can't travel within this region.

Our economies are integrated (especially the maritime provinces). We are under 2.5 Million people and it's ridiculous to not work as a group. This pandemic has shown the stupidity of having four different Atlantic provincial governments in such a small populated area of Canada making completely separate decisions.

Health authorities in all four provinces could have been working together to come up with strategy's for containment and tracing of the virus in the region.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by drewber

PEI and New Brunswick...yes...nova Scotia no. And the premier of Newfoundland has no interest in letting in people who come home every year let alone Taurus from the mainland. Sorry Nova Scotia but I think you're on your own with this one

Yes, well, as others have pointed out, while NB has handed the pandemic exceedingly well, as of right now, we do have the most active cases of any jurisdiction in Atlantic Canada. Thankfully, they remain confined to Restigouche County, and I am pretty confident this outbreak will burn itself out within the next two weeks.

As others have said, all four Atlantic provinces are beacons of shining light as far as the pandemic is concerned. It is time to loosen the travel restrictions and create a regional travel bubble including all four provinces. This is extremely important to boost regional tourism during our short summer season, and to help stimulate our regional economies.

With four separate premiers and four different departments of health, this may be difficult to arrange, but if the travel restrictions are not lifted by July 1st, I will be extremely disappointed........

[Taeolas]

I'm sure the Maritimes will reopen, and probably soon. There was talk of July and I could see that happen. Probably not really before then though; our premiers seem too cautious to rush into things that quickly.

But all 3 Maritime provinces seem to be in a similar situation, so it would make sense to make a regional bubble (that could probably include Newfoundland once the details are worked out and if Newfoundland agrees). The talks are probably going on constantly, both official and unofficially.

[ryan93]

On a personal note, I hope this is coming soon! We had a new baby the end of March, and he is now 10 weeks old but my wife’s family has yet to meet him as they live in Halifax. My mother in law had planned on staying with us for a month or so, but that planed obviously went by the wayside.

But personal reasons aside, I still think 100% this needs to be strongly considered on the coming weeks! It’s time.

[q12]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Yes, well, as others have pointed out, while NB has handed the pandemic exceedingly well, as of right now, we do have the most active cases of any jurisdiction in Atlantic Canada. Thankfully, they remain confined to Restigouche County, and I am pretty confident this outbreak will burn itself out within the next two weeks.

As others have said, all four Atlantic provinces are beacons of shining light as far as the pandemic is concerned. It is time to loosen the travel restrictions and create a regional travel bubble including all four provinces. This is extremely important to boost regional tourism during our short summer season, and to help stimulate our regional economies.

With four separate premiers and four different departments of health, this may be difficult to arrange, but if the travel restrictions are not lifted by July 1st, I will be extremely disappointed........

I'm with you completely, July 1st should be the latest.

Maybe we need to start a change.org petition.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Yes, well, as others have pointed out, while NB has handed the pandemic exceedingly well, as of right now, we do have the most active cases of any jurisdiction in Atlantic Canada. Thankfully, they remain confined to Restigouche County, and I am pretty confident this outbreak will burn itself out within the next two weeks.

It is just a random outbreak and while it is unfortunate that more people got infected if NB heads back down to 0 that is just more evidence that testing, tracing, and distancing measures are working effectively.

Every province will have to cope with the odd imported case of covid for the foreseeable future. Given that reality, managed travel between Atlantic provinces has little negative impact.

Here in BC, travel from out of province is still permitted. We had only 1 new case yesterday in a province with 5 million people. There have been outbreaks from people coming to BC from AB or other provinces but they've been traced, tested, isolated, and resolved. They didn't get out of control.

[Monctoncore]

Deleted

[thefishingnut]

The in-province stuff is good, but I think generally consists of day trips and weekends so it doesn't do much to stimulate the economy, or give people a good break. It would be great that everyone gets the mental health break of a vacation, particularly if this thing flares up again in the fall.

[drewber]

I'm glad no one on these forums is in charge of the province since your only concern seems to be the economy and not people's lives. As far as New Brunswick is concerned there's been no discussion of bubbling with anywhere but PEI and to think that will change in 3 weeks is unrealistic and dangerous. I don't think Higgs will make such a decision.

[Bishop2047]

Originally Posted by drewber

I'm glad no one on these forums is in charge of the province since your only concern seems to be the economy and not people's lives. As far as New Brunswick is concerned there's been no discussion of bubbling with anywhere but PEI and to think that will change in 3 weeks is unrealistic and dangerous. I don't think Higgs will make such a decision.

Thinking like this would have us in a constant state of lockdown and permanent house arrest. There is always some disease or risk when we go about our lives. More people are dying of boring old heart attacks and sepsis than Covid, and we are not upending life as we know it for those disease processes.

The fact is the virus is not as deadly as thought initially, and will proper precautions the world can be lived in again. If I was one that was at a high risk of perishing due to this particular virus, or had someone in my close circle who was immunocompromised I would restrict my travel, but the vast majority are ready and able to return to life as it was.

If you wish to hide in your house you are free to do so. To expect everyone to isolate indefinitely is delusional.

I am quite proud of how Canadian took this on the chin for as long as they did, but tough to justify an indefinite shutting down of an economy for a virus that primary kills the elderly https://toronto.citynews.ca/2020/04/...virus-covid19/.

[Nouvellecosse]

Originally Posted by drewber

I'm glad no one on these forums is in charge of the province since your only concern seems to be the economy and not people's lives. As far as New Brunswick is concerned there's been no discussion of bubbling with anywhere but PEI and to think that will change in 3 weeks is unrealistic and dangerous. I don't think Higgs will make such a decision.

What exactly would make it notably more dangerous for the zone to include all three compared to just two? It's a small region with a small population in either case and none are currently hotspots. Wasn't the main purpose of such restrictions to limit the spread of the disease between high and low occurrence areas? I mean, what gives the NS/NB border so much special significance compared to other regional divisions like NB/PEI, NS/CB or between major cities vs surrounding rural areas, etc?

[ScovaNotian]

A difference is that NB and PEI do not allow non-essential travel whereas NS does, isn't it? NS requires people to self-quarantine for two weeks, but I don't know how much enforcement there is. The three provinces would need to find a common denominator there if they were to bubble up.

[drewber]

Originally Posted by Bishop2047

Thinking like this would have us in a constant state of lockdown and permanent house arrest. There is always some disease or risk when we go about our lives. More people are dying of boring old heart attacks and sepsis than Covid, and we are not upending life as we know it for those disease processes.

The fact is the virus is not as deadly as thought initially, and will proper precautions the world can be lived in again. If I was one that was at a high risk of perishing due to this particular virus, or had someone in my close circle who was immunocompromised I would restrict my travel, but the vast majority are ready and able to return to life as it was.

If you wish to hide in your house you are free to do so. To expect everyone to isolate indefinitely is delusional.

I am quite proud of how Canadian took this on the chin for as long as they did, but tough to justify an indefinite shutting down of an economy for a virus that primary kills the elderly https://toronto.citynews.ca/2020/04/...virus-covid19/.

I haven't been hiding thanks I'm worried about the elderly and vulnerable populations who can get this and die from it. Comparing this to anything else when we only have 3 months of data versus other things that have a year of data behind them is Ludacris. I would love for the border to be open so I can make a trip to Nova Scotia from my vacation in August but I'm concerned about others outside of myself unlike other people.

[Bishop2047]

Originally Posted by drewber

I haven't been hiding thanks I'm worried about the elderly and vulnerable populations who can get this and die from it. Comparing this to anything else when we only have 3 months of data versus other things that have a year of data behind them is Ludacris. I would love for the border to be open so I can make a trip to Nova Scotia from my vacation in August but I'm concerned about others outside of myself unlike other people.

Those at risk should take precautions. Those that are in regular contact with vulnerable populations should take precautions. Even in this short time with the disease we can see who is at the most risk, and we should do whatever we can to protect them (within reason).

We should not shut down the economy indefinitely as this is entirely unreasonable.

[ScovaNotian]

Originally Posted by Bishop2047

Those at risk should take precautions. Those that are in regular contact with vulnerable populations should take precautions. Even in this short time with the disease we can see who is at the most risk, and we should do whatever we can to protect them (within reason).

We should not shut down the economy indefinitely as this is entirely unreasonable.

Protecting the vulnerable is one concern. Another one is that a not insignificant proportion of those that are infected end up in hospital, often for extended periods of time. There simply isn't the capacity to let this run unchecked. We may be able to have a higher proportion of the population infected than we do now without health care systems breaking down. However, it might become harder to control and in the end result in the need to reenact tighter restrictions.