Higgins explains, but does not walk back, tweet advocating self isolation for seasonal residents

Craig Bakay | Apr 01, 2020

32 people join Mayor Higgins for Facebook chat

North Frontenac Mayor Ron Higgins used Facebook Friday afternoon to address some issues related to the current pandemic as it relates to North Frontenac.

He said that his comments on this Mayor’s Facebook page were only his opinion, and do not necessarily reflect that of the staff and/or Council.

Higgins began by reading a prepared statement in which he addressed a post he made last week in which he suggested that anyone coming to their cottage should self-isolate for 14 days, and not go shopping for supplies once they get here.

“Since then I have had a few cottagers quite upset that I was singling out seasonal residents,” he said in his prepared statement. “As you see in my message, I broke it out into three categories: cottagers, businesses and all residents seasonal and full time.

“At the specific time of that message, we had confirmed incidents of seasonal residents moving to their cottages to isolate from the city or going directly to the cottage from a trip outside of Canada. Some were buying up everything in our stores. As usual it is always the few that make it difficult for the majority.”

He said he would “make no apologies for any of my messaging and I will not rescind any of my messages as requested.”

“In closing I want to say that nothing in my messaging was intended to pit seasonal and non-seasonal against each other. There is no discrimination and I treat everybody in our community as an equal resident.”

Higgins then responded to questions.

When asked if was OK to go to your mailbox, he said that if you’re self-isolating, that would probably be OK, as long as you take the precautions of wearing gloves and social distancing. However, he said “if you’re in quarantine, that’s a different matter.”

He said he did make a dump run yesterday and picked up some trash and recyclables from his neighbours.

“I wore gloves,” he said.

When asked about the scheduled Council meeting April 8, Higgins said that they were planning on holding an electronic meeting “if we can figure out how to let the public dial in.

“We’ll probably make all the votes recorded votes but if we can’t get the public in, we’ll probably cancel it.”

He said that every decision he makes regarding the pandemic are done in consultation with the Province and KFLA Health Unit.

“There are zero cases in North Frontenac that I know of,” he said. “There’s been one in Addington Highlands and one in South Frontenac.”

At its peak, there were 32 viewers on the Facebook chat, which lasted 17 minutes.

Higgins said he likely won’t make this method of informing residents an “every day thing” rather he will do it when he feels there is a need.

(Editors note – North Frontenac is heavily weighted towards seasonal residents, more so than any other Frontenac township. Over 2/3 of all properties in the township are only inhabited seasonally. According to the 2016 census, there are 2043 seasonal dwellings in the township and 923 permanent dwellings. The township is in the peculiar position of having over one thousand more residences – 2966 -  than permanent residents – 1898.)