Bernie Dertinger | Apr 22, 2020


The latest message from FOCA repeats the recommendation of all the pundits from premier Ford to the mayor of Perth for cottagers to stay at home and not to go the cottage. Frontenac council issued a similar message. Agreed, social distancing is the most important and most effective tool to contain the spread of the Covid 19 virus, especially in rural areas and cottage country given their sparse medical resources and fragile supply infrastructure for the necessities of life. The purpose of the message to stay home is self evident and most cottagers will understand and comply with it. However, as in most situations, one rule does not easily fit all. Cottagers will weigh the pros and cons of compliance against the desire if not the necessity of going there and some will come to the conclusions that they must visit their cottage

For example, most apartment dweller live in an environment with more unavoidable social contact than a suburbanite. If an apartment dweller also must use an elevator where social distancing is not possible, he may justifiably conclude that he should get out of harms way and staying at the cottage may be the only viable option. Others may find that they must visit the cottage in order to avoid significant economic harm. Some cottages cannot be accessed during the winter. Most cottages need a Spring inspection to detect roof and other damage that snow and ice may have caused. Some cottagers may have to do essential maintenance in order to avoid significant damage. For example, living off grid, the batteries, worth thousands of dollars, must be maintained or risk being damaged beyond repair. Then there is the insurance rule that a dwelling cannot be unoccupied for 30 days. In short, while the objective of containing the virus is clear, it should also be clear that a single recommendation, that of not going to the cottage at all, is hardly justifiable. There have to be exceptions to such a rule.

Many cottagers can drive to the cottage and back home without stopping anywhere. No human contact whatever is required during the trip and while at the cottage. The aforementioned high exposure potential city dweller who may additionally be in the high risk category and for whom hunkering down at the cottage is a potential life safer, can hardly be denied the right to stay at his cottage. That’s what the prime minister and his family did and may still be doing. Hopefully such individuals can bring along enough supplies as to minimize social contact such as for shopping. Most cottagers are well aware of the limitations of local medical facilities and would most likely choose to head home in an emergency.

While I can understand the motivation of the mayor of Gatineau who imposed an outright prohibition on visiting one’s cottage and went as far as setting up check-points at the bridges from Ottawa, denying passage to individuals heading to the cottage, in my opinion the move was ill considered. Other cottage country mayors, the mayor of Perth included, have not gone as far but most of them issued messages telling cottagers to stay at home. No nuances, no differentiation and, one suspects, no compassion at least in some cases.

Cottagers are taxpayers and they are also electors. Electors with memory one might add. Without cottage taxpayers, some municipalities would be hard pressed to pay for the infrastructure necessary to afford the permanent population a reasonable standard of such infrastructure. It might be helpful if municipal officials were to ask themselves what they can do for the cottagers. Perhaps the fire department could do a visual inspection of the outside of cottages and let cottagers know if there are obvious signs of damage. Knowing such inspections are taking place would induce more cottagers to stay away for the time being and thus lessen the possibility of inadvertent Covid 19 contamination. Life is a two way street. Doing something out of the ordinary for cottagers now as an inducement to stay away not only would help municipalities in keeping the corona virus at bay, it would also give the cottagers greater peace of mind about the state of their property and would make them feel more welcome at their second home.

Bernie Dertinger

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