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HALIFAX, N.S. — The debate over whether to clean up the cottage and get it ready for summer or to observe the provincial stay-home order commanded air time at Halifax regional council’s virtual meeting this week.

In introducing a motion for a staff report on municipal parkland that might support more visits to cabins, cottages and campsites during the COVID-19 crisis, Coun. David Hendsbee (Preston-Chezzetcook-Eastern Shore) said he has heard from residents who wondered if they could have access to their summer cottages and boat launches.

“Right now, with the ice coming out of the lakes, they want to know if they’re allowed access to summer cottages,” Hendsbee said. “They want to use their down time during self-isolation to do work at their summer cottages.”

The motion stated that the reason for the study would be that boat-launching facilities, such as the Lake Charlotte Boat Launch and parking lot, are considered parkland under bylaw P-600 but they should be exempt or not designated as parkland.

Hendsbee said that in the case of Lake Charlotte, the largest lake in HRM, a number of cottage owners there use the boat launch to get to their properties, some of which do not have driveways or direct road access.

“Right now, with the ice coming out of the lakes, they want to know if they’re allowed access to summer cottages.” - Coun. David Hendsbee

The outcome sought, Hendsbee’s motion said, would be that with the COVID-19 directives of self-isolation and social distancing, “nothing can be more effective than staying out in their cabins, cottages and campsites, but only if they can get access to them via the boat launch.”

The motion did not gain much traction among councillors in Tuesday’s virtual meeting.

“I appreciate that there may be people out there who are inconvenienced by a pandemic and want life to be as normal as possible, but the unfortunate thing is we are in the middle of a pandemic and these are classified as parkland and I think they certainly fit the definition,” Coun. Shawn Cleary (Halifax West-Armdale) said.

Coun. Tony Mancini (Harbourview-Burnside-Dartmouth East said people should follow directions from Public Health and stay home.

“It’s been quite clear from Dr. (Robert) Strang, from the premier, from our own mayor that we have to stop looking for loopholes,” Mancini said. “We all play a role in flattening the curve. It’s not about ourselves. We are all inconvenienced in this.”

Coun. Waye Mason (Halifax South-Downtown) said he was contacted by his father two weeks ago wondering why they couldn’t go to the cottage.

“You’re going to have to run out and get groceries when you get there, you’re going to need to get gas and every contact is a potential bit of work that Public Health has to track down if there is community spread, so we’ve been told not to go to our cottages,” Mason said.

“Everybody has to stay home. None of us like to stay home but all of us have to stay home.”

Coun. Matt Whitman (Hammonds Plains-St. Margarets) said he would support the request for a staff report “so that HRM taxpayers can access the HRM properties that they are paying property tax on, unless some of my colleagues want to suggest that they get a break on their tax bill on the property that they cannot access at this time.”

“COVID-19 sucks, it’s disruptive, it’s inconvenient but it’s the reality." - Deputy Mayor Lisa Blackburn

Coun. Steve Adams (Spryfield-Sambro Loop-Prospect Road) said he, too, would support the motion if for no other reason than to provide clarification on what is designated as parkland.

Deputy Mayor Lisa Blackburn said she couldn’t go along with the motion.

“COVID-19 sucks, it’s disruptive, it’s inconvenient but it’s the reality,” Blackburn said. “We have a choice to make, each and everyone of us has that choice, so I think it’s time that we just pull on our big-girl pants and do what needs to be done and stay the blazes home just like the premier and Dr. Strang told us.”

Blackburn said Dr. Strang was very clear last week in addressing the issue.

“He said he realizes that there are people who are itching to get out there and clean up their cottages and get going for the season, but he said you are going to have to wait until June or maybe later.”

Coun. Steve Streatch (Waverley-Fall River-Musquodoboit Valley) said it’s a difficult issue.

“Locals have properties and they want to use them as they see fit,” Streatch said. “The problem is there are a lot of folks who come into the community where they don’t necessarily live. That’s where a lot of the apprehension in my area was coming from, whether they stop at the store or stop on the way for gas.

“It is clear that for the greater good that we all, at this particular time, have to adhere to what we are being told to do by Public Health and err on the side of caution.”

Coun. Richard Zurawski (Timberlea-Beechville-Clayton Park) said the science is obvious and the potential health cost is too great to succumb to the natural desire to get out on the trails and to the cottages.

“This is not a drill,” Zurawski said. “The virus is a ghost, it’s invisible, you don’t know where it is, you can’t determine who has it at this juncture. … The science tells us it’s foolish to play with the statistics to play with ‘I’d like to go out,’ ‘I’m going to take a chance,’ ‘I’m not going to wear a mask,’ ‘I’m going to walk through the park.”

And so it went until Hendsbee eventually withdrew his motion.

“It was a request from constituents, I brought it forward and I thank you for your comments,” Hendsbee told his fellow councillors.

Hendsbee said the motion was intended only to gain clarification about boat launches and parkland.