Two regions in Ontario — Haldimand County and Kawartha Lakes — are allowing some of their seasonal trailer home parks to open earlier than usual to allow snowbirds returning to Canada a safe place to self-quarantine.

It may seemingly fly in the face of edicts from Premier Doug Ford and Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, who have asked that people remain in their homes and not head to vacation properties.

But the need for some RV and mobile home parks to open early is real, said Haldimand County Mayor Ken Hewitt, because their RVs or mobile homes are often permanent residences.

“The parks are deemed a non-essential service, and we obviously agree with that,” said Hewitt. “But there is a small glitch in the system. That is, you can’t tell the snowbirds to come home and if their home is in a trailer park, tell them they can’t go to their home. That’s the dilemma.

“These are people that don’t have other permanent residences in Ontario. And so they come home, and their home is the park.”

The parks in Haldimand — which usually open April 15 — can open as soon as the park operator deems provincial health and safety standards for water, electricity and sewage can be met. Hewitt said his temporary order applies to the 25-or-so parks in his county on the shores of Lake Erie, and probably involves only 100 or so snowbirds.

“This is not an open invitation for the people from the GTA to come to the trailer park and enjoy a little bit more isolation. Those people are not welcome and we won’t have them,” said Hewitt. “It’s that elderly couple that has a place in Florida but don’t have a house here. Where do you put them?”

Hewitt said anyone with a permanent residence should go to that residence rather than come to one of the parks.

The issues were similar in Kawartha Lakes, though the outcome may be different. While Haldimand’s edict comes by way of a special order of council, Kawartha Lakes simply extended the 2019 licences for the early part of 2020 to allow campgrounds to open whenever they want.

“It is completely up to the owners now,” said Andy Letham, mayor of Kawartha Lakes.

That means some cottagers who wish to defy Ford and Tam might be allowed in.

“It would be up to the campground, but if they choose to open, I would assume for anyone,” said Letham. “They are not our campgrounds, so not really up to us.”

Most parks across the country remain closed, but will face the same dilemma, says Shane Devenish, president of the Canadian RV Association.

“Make sure if you do open, we recommend you don’t open your pool. Keep your public washrooms closed,” said Devenish. “Really mandate that RVers stay to their unit. Don’t have groups of five or more. The basic message is to follow all health protocols. The worst thing that could happen is for this to spread around the campground.”

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Devenish said there could be issues across the country – which hasn’t mild weather like southern Ontario – that could prevent parks from opening early.

“The ground in a lot of cases is still frozen,” said Devenish. “So they can’t turn the services on. If they want to isolate themselves in an RV, they’d have to be hooked up: electrical, water, sewer. In a lot of cases, they haven’t been able to do that.”