With almost 6,000 residents, Oka, Que., is a tight-knit municipality. With an average age of 55, it’s not a young community. So far, the bucolic town west of Montreal has shielded itself from the coronavirus crisis, with no reported cases.
Mayor Pascal Quevillon, though, worries that could change quickly.
“The worry we have is that tourists are still coming here. They are coming from Ontario, Montreal, Laval,” Quevillon said. “We have no control over the traffic.”
He and the mayor of neighbouring Ste. Placide have written to the provincial government asking for the installation of police checkpoints at the borders of their towns, limiting non-essential travel. So far there are 12 regions in Quebec, including in the Outaouais and the Laurentians, that have these police checkpoints in place.
“Police have no power right now to intervene,” he said. “We want them to stop people but right now they don’t have the authority to.”
The mayor says too many people are ignoring the government’s directive to only leave the house when necessary.
He complains people are still driving through Oka to reach neighbouring Kanesatake in search of cheap cigarettes and cannabis, despite Kanesatake having closed smoke and cannabis shacks last week.
Quevillon also says he worries about Montrealers looking for an escape from the city, and woods to walk in. The Oka provincial park, with its many hiking paths and sandy beach, is a popular destination for Quebecers.
“It’s our fear with nice, warm days coming, there may be a complete loss of control,” Quevillon says.
The government says police checkpoints are determined by the director of public health and are not political.
At his daily press conference, Premier François Legault urged Quebecers to keep staying home.
“We need to be sure everyone collaborates, everyone respects the directives,” Legault said.
Quevillon will keep pushing for those police checkpoints because with no cases of COVID-19 in his town so far, he wants to keep it that way.