COVID-19 pitting tourists against townies this long weekend in northern Ontario

Kim Krech says that Temagami is the "perfect place to isolate" and that could be the northern Ontario tourist destination's new slogan.

But the owner of Temagami Marine, who will be busy launching 70 boats by Saturday of this long weekend, knows that some of her neighbours are not happy to see her welcoming the usual influx of cottagers, who could be bringing COVID-19 with them.

"A lot of the locals are very fearful, but I think it's more fear than anything," says Krech. 

"People get in their boat, they go to their islands and we don't see them half the time. We see their car and the boat is gone."

Krech says they've been reminding their customers to still follow physical distancing rules out on the lake and while they're getting into their boat on her docks. 

"They're not to stop and talk to the staff when they get in their boat. Get in their boat and go," she says. 

"Most of my customers get a hug not just a handshake. So this is going to be really tricky this summer to stay back. But we'll get used to it. It's just something we have to do."

Temagami Mayor Dan O'Mara never thought he'd be asking the thousands of tourists who drive his town's economy to stay home for Victoria Day weekend. 

"I know there are people who are not coming and I appreciate that," he says.

But O'Mara says he is caught in the middle, trying to serve all of his citizens — those who want to be able to use the cottage they pay taxes for and the ones who want him to block boat launches and access roads to keep COVID-19 out of their town.

"We're not putting barricades up, but we're saying to people 'If you come, be smart,' and we're saying to people that are here 'People do have the rights to come,'" he says.

"I'm probably not the most popular person in town right now."

O'Mara admits this could be a very stressful weekend on Lake Temagami, especially if some out-of-towners come up to "visit and party and have a good time like it's normal."

He says there will be many eyes on the lake this weekend, including police and the local lake watch volunteers, making everyone behaves themselves.

"If your neighbour sees you and you're doing something wrong, I'll probably get a call," says O'Mara.

Temagami, like most of the tourist towns, is worried about its health system being overloaded with the pandemic plus the normal swollen population during the summer. Most only have a medical clinic or a small hospital.

Blind River decided to re-open its boat launches to allow access this weekend to cottages on Lake Matinenda, a popular getaway for Americans.

The North Shore Health Network — which runs hospitals in Blind River, Thessalon and St. Joseph Island — wrote to the town council, warning that it had heard of some Americans getting across the border to visit their cottages, and that local hospitals are not at a "normal" capacity because of COVID-19 and not ready to take on extra patients.

Lindsay Harper thinks about the hospital on Manitoulin Island when he makes the drive from his home in Hanmer to his farm at Elizabeth Bay at the west end of the island.

"Every time I go it's an extra stress. I'm thinking 'Should I or shouldn't I,'" he says.

"Normally when we cross that bridge in Little Current it's kind of a sigh of relief 'Ooh, we're back on the island this is good' and now it's a stresser."

That's because some islanders are telling campers and cottages to stay away and there are checkpoints at M'Chigeeng where some visitors are getting turned back.

Harper is the fourth generation of his family to have that farm, he grew up there and has only been gone six years, but is now feeling like an outsider.

"They're going to get the looks. They're going to get that sense of 'Maybe we don't belong here,'" he says.

Harper fears those tensions between tourists and townies could mean much more "social distancing" in the years ahead and have a "lasting effect" on the island's economy. 

Julie Roy's worries about facing a rocky financial year suddenly changed on Thursday afternoon.

After weeks of not hearing anything from the province on whether trailer parks like hers would be able to open this summer, the government suddenly announced they can open as early as Saturday.

Roy, who with her husband bought Veilleux Camping and Marina outside of Hearst just last year, is now combing through the regulations to see if that will be possible.

She had been planning to charge the regular fees for the 100 trailer spots, but offer her customers a discount for next season based on how many days they actually get to spend there this summer. 

Trailer parks are often a lot more crowded that cottage areas and a lot more social, with group bonfires and kids playing together, so she knows it will be trickier.

She also wonders, given the weather in her neck of the woods, whether anyone will come this weekend if the park does open.

"I have camping spots that still have one to two feet of snow right now," Roy says.

"Everything is still frozen, I'm not able to start the water system. As of last weekend there were still people on the ice going snowmobiling."

As far as anxieties about summer people bringing the virus with them, Roy says almost all of her customers are locals as well. 

"They have a 12 minute drive and they're at the camp," she says. 

"Going to the camp you'll go to the same grocery store, the same pharmacy, the same everything, but instead of going back home, you go to the camp. It makes no difference."