Kapuskasing mayor reflects on losing community founders to COVID-19

It's been a rough time for Kapuskasing residents, as the small northeastern Ontario community has been rocked by several COVID-19 deaths.

A total of 11 residents have died at Extendicare Kapuskasing, with dozens still infected, including staff members.

And now the local health unit is reporting that a confirmed COVID test result in the area could be one of the highly-transmissible variants of the virus. The long term care home has been in outbreak status since early January.

Mayor David Plourde says it's a lot for the community of 8,600 people to digest.

"It's a real difficult time ... we're celebrating our 100th anniversary this year, and many of these these deaths are among people that are our original founders or have participated in the development of our community," he said.

"The residents, although they don't die alone, their families aren't permitted to be among them. And I think that's a real tough thing for for many of the residents. I can't imagine not being with my loved one when when they pass."

The spectre of a COVID-19 variant in the community has served as a bit of a wake-up call, the mayor notes.

"I think for a while it was getting to be lax. There's many that weren't following the regulations," Plourde said.

"I think [the recent news] just bring things into perspective, really. A lot of people that weren't wearing masks before are wearing masks. You'll always have some that that refuse to, and don't. And we're trying to get on top of that."

This is Plourde's first term as mayor, after 27 years on council. 

"I've seen a lot of struggles [but] this is one that beats all of them," he said.

"I'm coping, and I think I have a great council with me to help with that. And I'm fortunate. We just keep plugging on. That's all we can do."

Plourde says the idea of creating a "northern bubble" to help slow the spread of the viruses is problematic for his community.

"We have one highway in and out, but we really rely on each other, right across Highway 11 from Cochrane to Hearst and all the way up to North Bay [and] Thunder Bay, really," he said.

"So I don't know how realistic that would be in our case. I think that we're doing what we should be doing, and I think we're handling it. I'm not sure the northern bubble would be something that we would really be looking at."