The following are highlights of Bowen Island Health Centre Foundation’s second COVID-19 town hall Saturday morning. This one was about the municipal response to the pandemic. It featured Mayor Gary Ander, Coun. Maureen Nicholson and Emergency Program Coordinator Jennifer McGowan.
Following provincial lead
“Everything we do under this, COVID-19 and the pandemic, is absolutely governed by the province,” said Ander. “They are taking control of this situation.”
He said he has weekly video conference updates from Patrick Weiler, MP for West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea-to-Sky Country, and West Vancouver-Sea to Sky MLA Jordan Sturdy. “These are mostly very high-level discussions,” said Ander.
What’s up at BIM
Ander said there’s a skeleton crew working inside the municipality and everyone else is working from home.
All camps, going into the summer, are cancelled. All non-essential committee meetings are cancelled.
Ander said he’d been trying to meet ferries over Easter weekendand at that point he’d mostly seen residents get off the ferry.
Ander clarified that it is not in their municipal power to stop people who are not from here from coming to the island or to direct BC Ferries to stop people from coming or to direct Metro Vancouver Parks to close.
Flatten the Curve Facebook group
Coun. Maureen Nicholson talked about starting the Flatten the Curve Facebook group.
“I think in part it was to help deal with my own anxiety about the situation and I thought this was a constructive thing to do,” said Nicholson.
“It was focused on providing people with a place to offer help, or ask for help and also to share information,” said Nicholson. “So it has done that.”
What’s up at the emergency operations centre
“A lot of it is monitoring the situation,” said McGowan “There are almost daily directives and orders from the province that impact us and have implications for the municipality and so we need to respond to those.”
She says they’re doing a lot of information dissemination to the public (regular EOC updates and YouTube messages from the mayor) and to the province as well. They’ve also been doing work on the municipal continuity side, moving everything online and to remote work. “Even the EOC itself is virtual, which isn’t something that we had necessarily specifically prepared for.”
On physical distancing
“I do know there have been complaints received to the municipality. So that obviously gives us an indication of some of the problems but I would say by and large, I’m really proud of and impressed with the people of Bowen Island,” said McGowan.
McGowan encouraged everyone to sign up for the municipal news email alerts for up-to-date municipal COVID-19 information.
What about part-time residents?
When asked about people visiting their second homes on Bowen, Ander said, “I don’t know if we can actually stop them from coming and using their private residences on Bowen Island, which they are paying taxes on.
“I don’t see that as an issue. I see that as people coming off the ferry going to their cabins and staying there.”
“Personally, I’d rather they stayed in Vancouver, but they are sort of islanders and as long as they behave themselves do the social distancing and that sort of thing. I would say that, you know, this is an evil that we’ll just sort of have to suck up.”
McGowan added, “Dr. Bonnie Henry has repeatedly asked people not to travel to their second properties. Beyond that polite request, there’s not much the municipality can do to stop it.”
“Non-resident property owners have every right to come here, but folks who are sensitive would pick a home and stay in that home and not move around,” said Nicholson. She also pointed out the limited medical capacity of the island for those choosing where to reside.
911 dispatch changes
McGowan said that the province has changed the 911 dispatch protocol as of April 1. “BC Ambulance has a graduated call system where blue is you could probably call 811 and…purple is immediately life threatening, something like a heart attack,” explained McGowan. So at this point first responders are being dispatched for purple calls and the odd red, where it’s immediately life-threatening or time critical and on technical calls.
On whether or not to close Crippen
“The parks committee and Metro board, they walk a really fine line when it comes to access to those parks,” said Nicholson. “There are people living in [other] communities and 450 square feet homes where their regional park is a really important part of their daily lives.
“Here, Crippen is a really important part of many of our daily lives as well.
“The parks committee is concerned with, as much as possible, giving people the option of following the advice of Dr. Bonnie Henry of getting out into nature and using it for exercise and stress relief,” she said.
Food security
When asked about food security McGowan said they’re looking at that as part of advanced planning and in the short-term looking to support local food service providers. BIM is also supporting the food bank by having a staff member shop for food for the bank once a week. Nicholson noted that the foodbank has a new system (requests for food sent to [email protected] and monetary donations sent to Sheila McCall at [email protected]).
How many COVID-19 cases on Bowen?
As for the eternal question––how many COVID-19 cases on Bowen, McGowan said they’re not getting that information (Dr. Bonnie Henry released an op-ed last week about how COVID-19 is everywhere and releasing numbers of confirmed cases could give a false sense of security). “If there’s something you need to know, in terms of exposure, public health officials will let us know,” said McGowan.
Coming up from BICHF:
Saturday, 18 April 2020 at 10 a.m: Dr. Gayle Goldstein – Registered Psychologist, Dr. Stephen Kiraly – Psychiatrist and Maureen Mackey– Psychiatric Nurse answer questions about What can we do to help manage stress and stay balanced? How can we help our children cope with extended confinement and feelings of anxiety? Access on Zoom at https://bit.ly/BIHCF-TH
By telephone: 778-907-2071
Meeting ID: 635 941 026
Password: 745472.
Calming and connecting exercises and Q&A with Dr. Carolyn Nesbitt, Psychologist and Doug Elliott, Counsellor next Wednesday, 22 April 2020, at 8:30 a.m.
