The impact of northern New Brunswick soon having a travel ‘bubble’ — removing isolation requirements upon arrival — with neighbouring Quebec communities will help people and businesses, but to what extent?
The New Brunswick government announced Thursday it would also bubble with Listuguj First Nation, Avignon and Témiscouata Municipal Regional Counties when the pending Atlantic bubble opens by April 19; a plan that is contingent on control over COVID-19 cases and advice from top health officials.
But the Quebec bubbles are conditional too. People would only be allowed to enter the province if they haven’t travelled outside of those regions in the last two weeks, or, if they’ve received a COVID-19 vaccine two weeks prior to their visit.
People along the Restigouche River are certainly looking forward to the impacts the planned, loosened restrictions could have.
Nearly a quarter of Campbellton area business comes from the Quebec side, says Luc Couturier, the president of the regional chamber of commerce and owner of Cafe Chez Wes.
“This is one city separated by a bridge,” he tells Global News. A meeting was held with Dr. Jennifer Russell, the province’s chief medical officer of health, earlier this month, he says.
“We gave an example like… close the bridge in Fredericton, both sides. What’s going to happen? Close the bridge in Miramichi. What’s going to happen?,” he says. “We’re in the same situation. It’s one city. We need those people to survive and they need us too.”
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On the other side of the river, separated by the J.C. Van Horne Bridge and a provincial border, is Listuguj First Nation. Chief Darcy Gray says loosening travel restrictions will benefit many, especially this time of year.
“The timing is good, coming out of winter. Looking at February, March as two months that are traditionally very hard on people outside of the pandemic,” he says in an interview. “Add a pandemic to that. It’s heavy… It’s been really heavy.”
Gray is also encouraged that students from his community will be able to return to Sugarloaf Senior High School in Campbellton, N.B. April 6 after they received COVID-19 vaccines last week.
Students have been barred from in-person learning on the New Brunswick side following a decision in October, 2020, when COVID-19 cases popped up in the Campbellton area, including one within the school. However, Listuguj has only had about 20 cases since the start of the pandemic, Gray says.
At the other Quebec border, near the Edmundston region, businesses have been hit hard too. That region was the only one to be placed in a lockdown after the province’s initial shutdown when COVID-19 first made its way into the Maritimes. Tighter measures meant more business closures and restrictions.
The local chamber of commerce is hoping for more visitors.
“Summer’s coming… The tourism is absolutely in need of help,” says Cathy Pelletier, the executive director of the Edmundston Region Chamber of Commerce. She says it is difficult to compare communities and who was impacted the most by COVID-19 restrictions because every region is different.
But they need more than just regional borders open, she says. Pelletier says businesses need financial support from the province to help make it through to the end of the pandemic.
A company owning some businesses in the hardest-hit sector of the pandemic — hospitality and tourism — say there might be a slight boost with Quebec travellers.
Mylène Roy, the manager of operations and HR for Groupe Cyr Admin, which owns two local restaurants, hotels and a clothing shop, says it definitely won’t make a huge impact.
“Our region is geographically isolated from the rest of the Atlantic provinces,” she says. “People are not going to travel to Edmundston from Halifax if they can’t go further and then come back without having to self-isolate for 14 days.”
When New Brunswick bubbled, or ‘twinned’ with those Quebec regions previously, Nova Scotia still required visitors outside the Atlantic region to isolate upon entry.
Roy says people visiting from the neighbouring Quebec community wouldn’t stay in hotels if they were only a short drive from home, so their hotels are in desperate need of borders opening up to the rest of Canada. The Témiscouata bubble will help the restaurants, she says.
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