Details remain limited on how periodic roadside checks will look in B.C., but they will not be along highways entering the province from Alberta.
Public Safety Minister and Solicitor General Mike Farnworth tells NL News that people from out of province should not travel to B.C. right now, and says there will be signs along highways coming into the province with that message..
“If they’re coming into the Interior and it’s not essential travel, then no, they should not be going to Vancouver, for example. They could be stopped at one of the periodic roadside checks. Which will be run very much like a CounterAttack type,” he said.
“These orders are intra-provincial, in that it means they apply to British Columbia only… Once in B.C., for example, people obviously will be expected to abide by health restrictions that are in place.”
“The reality is, is don’t come to British Columbia.”
Farnworth says the government has been working with the tourism sector and notes in many cases, bookings made by people in areas of the province they don’t live in are being cancelled.
B.C. has been reluctant to close its provincial borders to non-essential travel, but, that move was made earlier this week by Nova Scotia, at its border with New Brunswick.
The intra-provincial travel ban announced by Farnworth today will limit non-essential travel, and is meant to limit the spread of more-contagious variants of COVID-19.
Vancouver Island residents will have to stay on the Island, Lower Mainland residents will not be allowed to go to the Island or the Interior, and people in Interior Health and Northern Health won’t be allowed to head to the coast.
Between now and May 25, anyone found breaking this order could face a $575 fine.
Farnworth has said while people in the Interior can travel a great distance without being fined, he says people should stay in their home communities.
“I’ll give the same message that I’ve been giving to other parts of the province: If you have to ask, it’s a good idea not to go. I think most people understand what their local area means, what their local area is,” he said.
When police road checks are in effect in B.C., Farnworth suggests there may not be as much enforcement on Highway 99. Most of the focus will be on stopping travellers in the Fraser Valley, before they reach Hope.
“Most people do the right thing. If someone’s actually determined to take the Duffey Lake Road to get into the Interior, then that’s something that they’re going to do. But the reality is, the overwhelming majority of people go via the Number One, the Canyon route, the Coquihalla, or the Hope-Princeton highway,” he told NL News.
Full details on these police road checks will be coming next week, but Farnworth says they will be set up where they can have a “maximum effect” on deterring travel.
