Travel for Listuguj, Pointe-à-la-Croix restricted in Quebec to maintain N.B. link
Residents of the Listuguj First Nation and Pointe-à-la-Croix in Quebec now face further travel restriction within the province of Quebec in order to maintain the Atlantic bubble.
A decree from the Quebec Health Ministry said residents of the two communities cannot travel to the rest of the province except for essential reasons.
Those from outside the two communities can now only enter if they live or work in the two communities or need to visit for essential services.
There are now roadblock and checkpoints leading into and out of Listuguj First Nation and Point-a-la-Croix.
Listuguj First Nations Chief Darcy Gray said he is supportive of the move, which he has called for for months.
He said other services in Quebec are 40 minutes away and it's important to maintain the community's connection with the Atlantic bubble.
"Being separated in the past when the restrictions were initially put up, not having access to Campbellton, split families," said Gray.
"It denied access to a lot of the things that we usually do on a day to day and it created more risk for our community because we had to travel to areas that had known cases rather than the way it's been here since the beginning."
Changing restrictions
During the beginning of the pandemic, the two communities were cut off from Campbellton except for essential services.
But in the summer, restrictions were loosened with two areas of Quebec being allowed to make day trips into New Brunswick: the Témiscouata Municipal Regional County, which borders the Edmundston area, and the Avignon Municipal Regional County, which includes Listuguj First Nation and Pointe-à-la-Croix.
But those day trips were scaled back because of increasing COVID-19 numbers in Quebec and now only residents of Listuguj First Nation and Pointe-à-la-Croix are permitted to make day trips into New Brunswick.
Alert levels have been increased in both counties with the Avignon Municipal Regional County recording 155 cases of COVID-19 since September 1.
Gray said there's been no cases of COVID-19 in Listuguj so far and neighbouring Pointe-à-la-Croix has only had one.
"We've had very, very low numbers throughout to date, exceptionally low, and that's what we want to keep it," said Gray.
Maintaining links
Gray said if the New Brunswick crossing is restricted that means members of his community will have to travel to areas in Quebec with higher levels of COVID-19 to receive services.
"We would be travelling to places with known cases or high rates," said Gray.
"These places are, I think, moving into the red and seeing a spike while we've maintained zero cases. So that alone creates a lot of anxiety."
Gray said since restrictions were increased at the N.B. border in September there haven't been any issues with residents traveling into Campbellton, but he's still advising his community to stay home as much as possible to be safe.
"There's no need to go multiple times a day," said Gray.
"We still have to understand that there's a pandemic and we need to be serious about this."
